Of Galge and Imaginary Friends
by Kameko the Orange
Summary: "Life is like a video game." Konata lives by her mother's last words...literally. Meanwhile, a twintailed miko's imaginary friend tries to convince her that she is real. Rated T because.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Prologue

In a Japanese hospital bed, a tiny blue-haired toddler sat beside what appeared to be an equally-blue-haired middle-schooler. Most would assume them to be sisters and the daughters of the man-also with blue hair, though his was of a duller color than the room's other occupants-sleeping nearby.

However, appearances can be deceiving. In reality, the creepy, old-looking man was actually the bedridden woman's spouse, and the toddler their daughter; while difficult for many, including the doctors tending the weakening woman's health, to grasp, listening to the little girl's interaction with her parents reveals their relationship.

"Mommy, look!" the miniscule girl shouted in a high-pitched voice, holding a poorly-drawn, even for a toddler, picture of her family standing outside the hospital.

Two brilliantly green eyes opened a little to look, but had to blink away the bright light of the hospital lights. Squinting to look at her daughter's drawing, she could not bother repressing her giggle, just as childlike as her appearance. "It's very good, Konata," she responded, before closing her eyes again and leaning back onto her pillow.

Used to her mother's behavior in the hospital, a place the family frequented far too often, the girl named Konata beamed and continued drawing in her untidy way, and she was soon the only conscious person in the room.

This became a problem for her very quickly, when her tiny tummy grumbled.

Pouting and glaring at her stomach with all the menace a two-year-old could muster, Konata considered her options. She could wait for the nurses to come with her mother's food tray…but they only came when the little hand was to the right of the big one, and it would be a while until that happened. That meant that she only had one option.

She threw a crayon at her father.

Now, for a toddler, Konata was extremely gifted with physical activities, like walking and running, and this showed in her impeccable aim. Her father's head, sleeping as he was in a chair, was tilted backward, so he provided two small holes his daughter subconsciously aimed at.

Therefore, Izumi Soujirou woke to a blue crayon sinking into his right nostril.

_How did that get there?_ he wondered while sneezing several times. After a few seconds of this, he finally reached his long limbs up and pulled out the offending drawing implement, before looking up at the sound of heavy, childish laughter. _Ah, so that explains it,_ continued the still-partially-asleep father. _Detective Soujirou solves the case again!_

Finally reducing her laughter to giggles, Konata opened her mouth to speak, but got interrupted by her stomach. She glared at the offending organ again.

Her father chuckled. "So Konata is hungry," he stated simply.

Seemingly forgetting her hatred for her midsection, the little child beamed up at the blue-haired man and said, without apology for waking Soujirou at all, "Yes!"

"Konata," an amused- and annoyed-sounding voice spoke from the bed, "what did we say about asking politely?"

"You said, 'Pwease do it,' Mommy," came the regretless reply. Nevertheless, Konata turned toward her father. "Sowwy, Daddy. Pwease get me food!"

"If you don't know the way, then I guess I'll do it," Soujirou teased his daughter. Knowing that the tiny tot would be absolutely offended by this, he hastened towards his wife. "I'll be right back, Kanata," he said in a rare, tender, slightly sad voice.

Kanata smiled up at him warmly and weakly pushed him toward the door, saying, "If you don't go, Konata might impale you with more Crayons."

Another chuckle, and he was gone, leaving the two too-small women alone. Konata noticed her mother's expression change from its normal, happy state to a more tired, sad one.

"Mommy?" she asked with surprising quietness. No response came immediately, but soon tears were forming in Kanata's drooping eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, my dear Konata," a wavering voice that sounded little like Izumi Kanata came from her mouth. "Be good for Mommy. I love you. I love you and your Daddy."

This was what Konata would tell her father were Kanata's last words, and it seemed like they might be for a few minutes as the toddler stared at her mother. "Mommy?" Konata questioned in a trembling manner. She might not have known what exactly was going on, but she did _not_ like it.

Kanata sighed softly and smiled slightly at her daughter. "You know," she mused, mostly to herself, "life is like those games your father likes to play when I'm not around."

A moment of silence passed before Kanata directly addressed her daughter, though her voice was steadily growing drowsier. "Life _is_ like a video game," she said softly as her eyes drifted closed, "except everybody in the world is playing, affecting everybody else. Because a little girl stopped and let a car go first, she might have saved the life of another child who would grow to become the next great thinker.

"Life is like a video game, Konata," said girl's mother finished before drifting off to sleep for the last time.

An hour later, Izumi Kanata's heart stopped beating.

Though they tried their hardest, the doctors could not revive their long-time patient, and many broke down at the sight of the tall, creepy, kind-hearted man they had grown to like sob uncontrollably by Kanata's bed.

However, to the concern of many present (Soujirou was far too preoccupied to notice), Konata did not cry, nor did unshed tears fill her eyes. She simply trembled in her father's tight, comfort-seeking embrace.

It would be months before Soujirou was anywhere close to his normal state of mind, and well over a year before Konata was convinced he would ever be alright again. By this time, her father had noticed the lack of tears coming from his child, who had been very clingy and loud as a baby, though her tone of voice would always become sadder if they broached the topic of Kanata, something that would not happen for many years to come. To distract his daughter, he introduced her to games, and she begun her ascent to the title of "Legendary Girl A."

Throughout all of this, in Konata's head, her mother's last words echoed over and over, becoming her motto, her reality.

_"Life is like a video game, Konata."_

Many years later, Konata awoke surprisingly early, but she kept her eyes closed, knowing what would happen once she opened them. It was peaceful, she realized, as she didn't have the pressure to raise her Friendship and Affection when she could not see it.

That would change, though, like it did every day.

_Might as well start now,_ the short, blue-haired girl said. A cat-like grin graced her lips as her eyes opened to her usual half-lidded state. In her vision, she could see everything around her perfectly, but she also saw _other_ things. Specifically, sidebars not unlike those one might see in a video game.

_"Life is like a video game, Konata,"_ her mother's voice echoed through her head as she prepared for her first day of high school.

Unseen by the rooms occupant, the ghost of Izumi Kanata watched, an ethereal sweat drop gracing her pale, translucent features.

"I didn't mean it _literally_," she said, exasperated, as she listened to her daughter muttering about friendship and affection levels.

The familiar pull back to the person she, for whatever reason, seemed to be haunting tugged on her. Kanata gave a last, loving, longing look to her daughter before allowing it to pull her along.


	2. Kagami -I-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 1

Kagami -I-

"Kaga-chan."

Hiiragi Kagami heard her name, but, as she did every day, did her best to ignore it.

"Kaga-chan," the voice insisted, and Kagami felt a light nudging that really should _not_ be possible; the lavender-haired teenager attributed it to her mind compensating for seeing a person nobody else could.

Still, Kagami groaned at the unseen woman's prodding, grabbed a nearby pillow, and threw it at her assailant. She regretted this immediately, as, not only would the improvised projectile do nothing, the sleepy _miko_ no longer had a good place to rest her head.

"Nothing you say is going to get me out of this bed," she murmured as she searched for a replacement.

A giggle sounded through the bedroom. "Kaga-chan, you start high school today."

_That_ got the sleepy girl's attention, and she sat up suddenly, knocking the woman who had tried her best to rouse her back in a whirl of blue hair and tiny limbs. Strangely, at the point when most would hit the wood floor painfully, she simply phased partially through it, before climbing back out.

Kagami was unconcerned. "Why didn't you get me up earlier?!" she hissed as quietly and angrily as possible while trying to untangle her feet from the warm bedspread.

Despite the physical attack she had just received, the blue-haired woman giggled once more and stood, causing her stature and features to show more readily. She looked like a sixth-grader, with very long, smooth hair, pale skin, and emerald green eyes. Rather, that _would_ be what she looked like if her entire figure was not several shades closer to white than normal, as if she was a reflection in a foggy mirror.

Having heard the amused sound, Kagami turned, glared at the strange girl who had not changed since she was a baby, and angrily asked the target of her ire, "What?"

"You asked me to wake you up early today so you and Tsu-chan could make it on time."

At that point, Kagami looked past the woman's form and onto her clock, which stated very clearly that she was quite early. "Sh-shut up!" she whisper-yelled, face flushed with anger and annoyance, but nevertheless slowed her frantic pace to a more reasonable one.

The blue-haired woman tried to stifle her giggles, but had to turn away nonetheless.

Silence overtook the bedroom as its corporeal inhabitant finished dressing. Grabbing her hair ribbons, she left to wake her sister without saying a word to the room's other occupant, knowing that she would be following. Inside the adjacent bedroom, a lump in the blankets snored softly, blissfully unaware of the day's importance or her sister's unamused expression.

Kagami contemplated hitting the sleeping girl with a pillow. _It would be more satisfying than trying to hit _her_, at least,_ she thought as the sound of _more_ childlike giggles came from behind her. Ultimately, though, she wouldn't do that to her twin, no matter how annoyed she might be.

"Are you going to wake her up, or continue staring at her in a way reminiscent of my husband's games?"

"Shut up!" Kagami hissed again, a flush of embarrassment competing with a nauseous green; the _miko_ had heard of this "husband" before, and the stories usually emphasized one of two things: his kindness or his utter perversion. "That's disgusting! And you can't _have_ a husband-you're not real!"

A thoughtful look overtook the pale, blue-framed face, and muttered, seemingly to herself, "Well, the vows did say, ''Till death do us part…'"

"Even ignoring the fact that you're a figment of my imagination, ghosts don't exist either!"

"Obviously, they do, or else I wouldn't be here."

"You're not! You're in my head!"

"Onee-chan…" the mound on the bed moaned, distracting both Kagami and her "not real" friend from their daily argument. "Why are you whi-" began the form under the blankets, but was interrupted by her own body, and she yawned and stretched, releasing audible pops and cracks, "-whispering over my bed?"

Just looking at the two sisters revealed many, many similarities, more than one might expect from fraternal twins. They shared the same hair and eye color, skin tone, height, and much more, but they differed in a few important ways. The most notable of these was their eye shape-Kagami's eyes were sharp while those of her twin, Tsukasa, were rounder-and their hair length. However, this, like their drastically differing personalities and other preferences, was probably more due their respective positions as "older twin" and "baby of the family" than anything else.

"I am too real," the long-haired twin heard the mildly smug voice of the girl behind her say; she knew Kagami would not respond, else the younger twin might come to believe her reliable sister insane.

Despite the temptation to yell at her friend, Kagami roped in her temper as best she could and told Tsukasa, "It's the first day of high school, so I came to wake you up."

Though they were very different in their likes and dislikes, the twins were very close to each other, so Tsukasa noticed her sister's annoyance, but also knew that it wasn't targeted at her. She was wary anyway. "Did Matsuri-nee-chan do something to you, again?" asked the shorter-haired twin as she climbed reluctantly out of bed.

Kagami sighed and turned to her sister's mirror so she could tie up her hair in its usual twintails. Though there was a bond of trust between the two, Kagami had never-_would_ never- tell her twin about her imaginary friend; she was the responsible, cool-headed protector, and talking to invisible people would ruin that image. "Not this time."

"Alright," came the response, and they got ready in silence, with Kagami helping Tsukasa tie her yellow ribbon-turned-hairband to keep the younger twin's shorter hair out of her face.

* * *

"You forgot your lunch?!" an irate Kagami cried out at the train station. "How could you forget your lunch? You _made_ the lunch!"

Tsukasa, eyes squeezed shut, apologized profusely.

"You know," the familiar voice of Kagami's imaginary friend sounded out from nearby, where she was staring at the train schedule, "we're early enough that, if she hurries, she should be able to get to school on time anyway. The train will come through again, see?"

She was right, of course, though how a nonexistent entity knew something the twintailed girl didn't confused her to no end. _I must have glimpsed it on our way in._

Kagami sighed, and relayed the information. "Be careful!" she yelled to her retreating sister's back, before turning and whispering to the pale-as-a-specter girl, "Can you follow her or something to make sure she doesn't get lost, Kanata?"

"I'm sorry," the girl-Kanata-replied. "I used all of my excess energy to visit my daughter this morning, so I have to stay close to you for now."

The train arrived, and the two girls, one visible and the other not, boarded. Lips barely moving, Kagami quietly shot back, "You're _imaginary_. You don't _have_ a daughter!"

Every other time, the tiny woman would, "Hmph!" and turn away, but, for whatever reason, this time she simply smiled broadly. "You'll see," she said mysteriously, though whatever mystery she was hinting at didn't stay so for long. "She's going to your school."

That the self-proclaimed ghost seemed confident in her conviction-and that the strangely satisfying sound when she could not argue back wasn't released-irked Kagami. "Really," she whispered with a tone that said, "I don't believe you."

"Yes. You'll recognize her straight away."

"You're a figment of my imagination, and, even if you were a ghost- impossible, as ghosts don't exist-you look like you're…eleven, at most."

Kagami's protests were ignored. "Her name is Izumi Konata."

"How original."

"Hmph."

_There it is, _Kagami thought with a sense of accomplishment.

* * *

"Why didn't you look for Konata's name on the class lists?" Kanata asked her hauntee.

Both girls were in Kagami's new classroom after the opening ceremony, waiting on her teacher to arrive and listening to Misao and Ayano, who recognized when their other friend was in an asocial mood, talk nearby. Luckily, nobody was paying Kagami much attention, and the noise level was loud enough that her whispers to the blue-haired head lying on her desk's top would not be heard.

"Because, even if, by some coincidence, there is somebody named 'Izumi Konata' in this school, imaginary friends cannot have children." At this point, the whispers took an exasperated tone.

Kanata's face took on an innocent-looking eyesmile that Kagami, after well over a decade of interacting with her, knew to be one of hidden mischievousness. "Sure they can!" the over-cheerful response came. "You see, when an imaginary girl and an imaginary boy love each oth-"

_Thud!_

"Oi, Hiiragi!" Misao called out. "You alright?"

Nodding, Kagami decided that, not only was slamming her head on a desk painful, it was probably counterproductive to ridding herself of hallucinated friends.

Kanata giggled.

* * *

"Onee-cha-what happened to your head?"

"You don't want to know," Kagami replied, eyes closed.

Tsukasa blinked at her twin's bruised forehead, before deciding to drop the topic for now. "Well, I wanted to introduce you to my new friends!"

Kanata giggled at something, and Kagami cracked an eye open. "You want to introduce my forehead to your friends?"

Tsukasa was, indeed, still staring at her sister's bruise, and became quite flustered when she was noticed doing so; her yellow ribbon's ends, before simply sitting in a bow-like position, suddenly stood entirely erect, her eyes widened, and the short-haired twin gained an embarrassed blush.

Before she became even more upset, Kagami pushed herself up. "Alright, alright." Though she sounded exasperated and reluctant, the twintailed teen was actually extremely interested in her sister's friends (not that she'd ever admit it). Nobody had approached her once lunch started, and Misao dragged Ayano to the cafeteria; the same treatment would have been given to Kagami if she hadn't threatened to never help the hyperactive girl with homework again.

So, she followed her happy sister through the hallway and to her classroom.

Along the way, Kagami noticed Kanata becoming more and more excited, as if she knew something the rest didn't and was only barely holding back from blurting it out.

Meanwhile, Tsukasa was describing her friends. "Yuki-chan looks really pretty and smart. She even answered a question somebody asked Kuroi-sensei once! And Kona-chan is-"

_Wait, "Kona-chan"?_ Kanata's excited expression gains a little smugness, like when she makes a point Kagami can't counter, which doesn't go away under pressure of a pointed glare. _There's no way. It's just coincidence._

"-and slept in class, and says things I don't understand, and seems to know Kuroi-sensei, and-oh, we're here!"

The first thought Kagami had when she looked into the classroom was, _You shouldn't prop you legs up like that when you're wearing a skirt, especially since you're a teacher._ At least, she looked like the teacher; she was leaning her chair against the chalkboard behind at the teacher's desk, and she wasn't wearing the student uniform.

Then, Kanata rushed past her and through the wall of the classroom. _Huh?_

"Hey, I brought Onee-chan!"

At this point, though, Kagami had crossed the room's threshold and stopped dead. Already standing in the classroom was Kanata, her too-pale body, normally shorter than everybody, was exactly the same height as one eerily familiar person. Beside her stood somebody who could be her clone if it weren't for a few differences-darker skin, a mole under the left eye, and an _ahoge _were the ones that Kagami noticed immediately-but it was obvious they were related.

_No…no way._

"Yuki-chan, Kona-chan, this is my sister, Hiiragi Kagami. Onee-chan, this is Takara Miyuki and Izumi Konata."

* * *

**AN: A few notes on this chapter:**

**1) When I was writing about Tsukasa waking up, I yawned six times. This count does not include yawns I experienced later when I was thinking about it. **

**2) As it so happens, if I move my finger through my hair in the right way right by my ear, it sounds like a train chugging down the tracks. I caught myself doing this several when I was writing the train station scene.**

**Thank you very much for last chapter's reviews, follows, and favorites! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 2, Konata -I-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Konata gets some weird vibes. _

_'Konata was hit with a sudden realization. _This can only mean one thing…she's-_'_


	3. Konata -I-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 2

Konata -I-

_What in the name of Haruhi is going on here?!_ was the only complete thought that crossed Konata's mind during the next second, though she maintained her outward composure effortlessly. In her head, however, only "pandemonium" could adequately describe the child-bodied high schooler's mental state.

Something had gone terribly wrong with the Friendship/Affection sidebar of her interface, but only the numbers associated with Kagami; modifiers appeared and disappeared quicker than Konata could read their descriptions, and the subscores fluctuated faster than the popularity of some anime.

Note that the above was the sole _complete_ thought in the self-proclaimed _Otaku_ Queen's head. If one bothered to piece together fragments of thought, they would find that many other concepts, ideas, and commands flew back and forth, contradicting each other and generally commenting on the strange situation their owner found herself in. Here are the most pertinent of them in approximately chronological order.

_Expand the subscore bars! Something's up here, and-why is the _Attraction_ ss the most stable? It's never the most stable! That's not biologically possible!_

_"Most likely cause: Long-Lost Childhood Friend"? The hell?_

_She really does pull of those twintails…_

_The Trust and Attachment ss's have stabilized…wait, they went up? They're the _hardest_ to raise! Not that her Trust and Attachment are very high to begin with…that's going to hurt the scores in the long run, isn't it?_

_The Dialogue bar says, "_A brief spark of something resembling recognition flashes in Kagami's eyes, but fades quickly._" That means…she doesn't actually know me? She knows someone who looks like me? She's better at acting than most actors? This is so confusing._

_The other subscores are stabilizing. Somehow, there really isn't much difference-certainly not enough to change the actual scores._

And, finally:

_By Haruhi's golden ribbon, what is _that_?!_

"That" was, easily, the most devastating modifier Konata had ever seen. Her status as an _otaku_ caused some serious penalties amongst her peers before-along the lines of "-10% expressed Friendship"-but _nothing_ prepared the poor girl for "that": _"Heavy, past-based confusion linked with protagonist: +3% expressed Friendship out of habit, -46% expressed Affection due to unintentional emotional distancing. If the protagonist assists in resolving this confusion, this modifier will Phase; a high-level, positive modifier may be acquired at that time."_

_Gah! It's super effective! Konata fainted!_

She didn't actually faint, but she definitely felt like it.

And then, the second passed.

"Nice to meet you," Miyuki greeted from Konata's right. The blue-haired girl herself simply nodded, not trusting herself to speak lest she lose her carefully maintained composure.

"Likewise," replied Kagami politely.

_Well, at least I might get some time to think this over when she leaves to eat._

Tsukasa chose that moment to ask, "Will Onee-chan eat with us?"

_Okay, but she might not-oh, look, her lunch box._

"Sure, if that's alright with everyone."

"Of course it is!" Miyuki claimed.

Then, Konata made a decision that would affect her interactions with the twintailed Hiiragi ever after: _Time for Emergency Act-Without-Thinking Mode!_ "Sure!" Konata said aloud, shooting out of her seat. Before Kagami could protest, she was maneuvered toward the unused side of the group's desk. Tsukasa and Miyuki simply stared blankly at the scene.

"What the-"

On the inside, the energetic _otaku _winced; this was the reason she didn't like EAWT Mode-she discarded her carefully trained quick thinking and acted rather like the hyperactive child she physically resembled, so it hit two of her most sensitive insecurities at once.

"Come, sit down, and tell us about yourself!" Konata said in spite of her internal dread, putting more force in her movements as Kagami's struggles began. Unfortunately, the blue-haired girl made a crucial mistake: she removed a hand to grab a chair from a nearby desk; though she was, without a doubt, unusually strong for her size, that smallness required her to use both arms for tasks like forceful bodily manipulation. At this moment of weakness, Kagami wrenched her left arm away and brought it down upon her assailant's head.

"Ow!"

"Why the hell should I do that?!"

_Trust…didn't fall at all. That's strange. _"Because you're already here, and if you had anywhere important to be, you wouldn't be." _Did I seriously just say that?_

Kagami gaped at her tiny adversary, before replying, "I-I'm only here because Tsukasa asked me to!" Though her irritated tone persisted, when she stuttered, the light blush she acquired with her anger grew deeper.

At this point, however, Konata's semi-collected mind, only recently out of chaos, dived right back in.

_Aggressive, violent mode that conceals a soft, caring, and easily-embarrassed center,_ she realized, shocked. _Th-that's not possible. They don't exist in real life. There's no way…_

The interface, on the other hand, had gathered enough information-nearly invisible cues along with more obvious ones-to make a decision, one that, though reported too hastily for Konata's taste, was _never_ wrong. It showed its results, like it had for Tsukasa and Miyuki, on an alert bar near the top of the screen: Hiiragi Kagami's most likely character archetype: _tsundere_.

Konata felt her own Affection score for the elder Hiiragi twin rise exponentially.

"I, too, would like to get to know you, Hiiragi-san," spoke the polite-toned, pink-haired, and Mikuru-chested Miyuki.

_I wonder if she stole my adulthood to get those…_ passed through Konata's head absently.

A sigh escaped Kagami's lips, and she paused as if reluctant, but the Dialogue box caught something. Kagami mutters something under her breath, too low to hear.

_I didn't see her lips didn't move, but the box was never wrong before._ "What was that, Kagami?"

She tensed for about half a second before saying, in a resigned and angry tone, "I said, 'Fine!' Are you happy?"

Konata had trouble resisting the urge to squeal happily.

However, as the following get-to-know-Kagami interrogation session began, a strange feeling nagged at the back of Konata's brain. _I'm missing something…something important, beyond her being a _tsundere_._

Between eating, Kagami's glaring, and the little remaining time in the lunch period, though, little other information was squeezed from the twintailed girl. All that Konata could glean from the ensuing conversation was that the target of their interest liked light novels ("No, I don't read _yaoi_!"), studied every night ("Don't even think about trying to copy."), and, along with her sisters ("Yes, we have other sisters, and no, we're not quadruplets.") and mother, was a _miko_.

The last, revealed the moment before the bell rang, caused Konata to fall out of her chair. _She's a _tsundere miko_? I have to be dreaming. _*pinch* _Ow! Never mind. But still, this isn't something like a ghost or demon; if anything, those are real because some random hormonal teenager wants them to. I thought characters like this simply didn't exist!_

But, apparently, one did, and she was leaving for her classroom. "Nice to meet you, Takara-san," she said, standing and gathering her now-empty lunch box. There was a pause before she added, "Konata."

_I guess she did notice…_ "See ya, Kagami!"

"Just Miyuki is fine, Hiiragi-san."

"Then call me Kagami, Miyuki-san." The twintailed girl turned to her sister, said, "I'll meet you on the way out," and left.

* * *

Konata, who usually slept during class, gave her afternoon teachers an incorrect impression: the entire time, she sat straight and seemed to be taking heavy notes.

This, of course, was far from the truth.

_What is this feeling?_ she wondered while connecting the words "twintails" and "_tsundere_" with a line. _What, exactly, do I not understand? And how did my characteristics map come to look like Kagami? _Indeed, somehow, her almost reverent manual logging of her new mystery's traits turned out an unusually well-drawn portrait of an angry, twintailed high schooler. _It seems incomplete, somehow._

Shaking off the strangeness of her "notes," she continued on her mental rant. _Something doesn't make sense about her, and I don't know what it is. What connection am I missing, here? _

The puzzle picked at her brain until class ended, when Tsukasa and Miyuki had to enlist Kuroi-sensei's help to break her trance, and afterwards. It so happened that both Konata and the Hiiragi twins rode the same train at least partway home, though, on this day, Konata simply opted to boarded a car further down after waving; only Kagami seemed to notice.

The blue-haired _otaku_ needed time to think, and think she did, all the way to her station and throughout the walk to her house.

"I'm home!" Konata yelled to her father.

"Welcome back," came Soujirou's response.

Now, at this point, there would normally be friendly banter between the two _galge_ addicts, but something froze Konata in place. In a last-ditch, definitely illogical attempt to figure out what went wrong in her analysis of Kagami, the interface superimposed an image of the elder Hiiragi twin over the notes.

Only one line was missing-the end of one of her ribbons-and it led perfectly between "_tsundere_" and "mysterious and important plotline necessary for pursuing route." While this might not necessarily lead to any conclusions by itself, one of the lines branching from "_tsundere_" led to an inauspicious note near the top of the teenager's head: "significantly dissimilar personality from other characters."

Thus, Konata was hit with a sudden realization. _This can only mean one thing…she's the Main Heroine._

**AN: Thus ends Konata -I-, though I still have no clue whether the "-I-" is a Roman numeral or short for "introduction." **

**This is a great time to note something that I thought about putting at the end of Kagami -I-, but decided not to, as it wasn't obvious then. Put simply, some characters here are not quite the same as their canon counterparts-similar, yes, but not the same. For example, while Konata-canon showed a high intelligence, she focused it more on games and anime than real life. However, Konata-oGaIF _literally _sees the world as one big game and, thus, finds it worth her mind's attention, though she still hates studying. This acts as a late warning and, thus, is the only time I will explicitly point this out. **

**Thank you very much for last chapter's review, comments, favorites, and follows! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 3, ****Kanata**** -I-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, __Kanata__ has her own mystery._

_"I wonder if I can eat in this form," the ghost thought aloud._


	4. Kanata -I-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 3

Kanata -I-

Kanata giggled uncontrollably as her hauntee stalked off the train, muttered curses flowing freely from her mouth while her sister followed fearfully. Since meeting Konata, Kagami had _not_ been in a good mood, though whether that was due to Kanata's newly-proven existence, her daughter's behavior, or both the incorporeal woman did not know.

But it was _hilarious_.

"-acting so freaking familiar with me even though we've never met," continued Kagami's complaints, "and what was with her falling out of her chair? Surely the bell didn't scare her _that_ much."

"Maybe," interrupted Kanata, not stuttering only because opportunities to tease were the only way to stop giggling, "she has a thing for _miko_." Giggles once again stole the tethered spirit's speech at the sight of the twintailed girl's face.

"Sh-shut up!" Kagami hissed as quietly as she could while still fully expressing her rage.

However, that's not the only emotion she conveyed. "You only stutter when you're embarrassed, Kaga-chan."

"Ugh! You two are exactly the same: short, annoying, and loud! And is that any way to be talking about your daughter?"

"So you admit that she's my daughter?"

A pause, then, "Ghosts don't exist."

She hadn't answered the question. "Then that our height, hair and eye color, 'annoying and loud'-ness, and tendency to tease you are 'the same' are just coincidences?"

"…I told you to shut up!"

"Um, Onee-chan?" Tsukasa finally spoke up, catching the attention of both her sister and the invisible woman; the former's glare seemed to hit the shorter-haired teen with the force of a small vehicle, and she almost fell backward. Still, she asked, "D-do you not like Kona-chan?"

Kanata watched in amusement as Kagami's anger fled her body at the sight of her cowering sister-she never could stay truly mad under the childish gaze of her twin. Still, an annoyed tone of voice remained in the reply. "She tried to force me into a chair just to interrogate me. What do you think?"

"You didn't answer the question,"Kanata noted during another giggle lull. It was one of her friend's ways to avoid embarrassing questions, like, "Did you just tell the air to shut up?" However, that she hadn't used her first defense against such questions-heavily veiled sarcasm-was telling; either Kagami wanted to avoid accidentally hurting her sister or just didn't have the presence of mind to come up with such a reply.

Kanata believed the latter, and it just made her giggle even harder than before.

Of course, one does not spend nearly every waking minute of their life with another without learning some of their habits, and Tsukasa showed she was no exception. "Onee-chan~!" she whined.

"You _don't_ dislike her, do you, Kaga-chan?" Kanata prodded-both figuratively and literally, as her otherwise intangible finger repetitively poked the taller, younger girl's shoulder. "Just like you still like me, despite your complaints."

The shoulder the ghost was playing with twitched away, a sign that Kagami had decided to ignore her ever-present companion. Once again, this just made the entire situation funnier for Kanata.

At the time, at least.

After a pause, though, Kagami answered her sister. "She's annoying, nosy, and I'm positive that she made several references to something I didn't get throughout the interrogation. A few times, her questions nearly became too personal. But…it seemed like…she just wanted to get to know me and had no idea how. I can't really hate someone for that, can I?"

This was enough to mollify Tsukasa, who beamed in adorable happiness and skipped ahead a few meters.

Kanata, whose giggles subsided long enough to hear the short monologue, commented, "Or she just has a thing for _miko_."

There was no response, spoken or not; Kagami just followed her sister.

And, thus, the ghost's biggest weakness clawed its way out of her head; Kanata grew bored. Admittedly, though such a state of mind overcame the ghost quite easily, this rarely happened, as fourteen years of spending a third of the day staring at a sleeping child tends to teach one how to avoid this problem. It didn't take long for Kanata to create innovative ways to maintain her happiness at night; teasing her tether kept her sharp during the day, but Kagami had to sleep, after all.

Still, Kanata easily succumbed to boredom, and she _hated_ it. "Hmph," she sounded, turning herself away from Kagami. No sound or sign of triumph emerged from the twintailed girl; it seemed she would carry through this time. "Stubborn girl."

* * *

By the time the trio entered the Hiiragi household, though, Kanata had slipped into her own thoughts, one of the many defenses against her most hated adversary, the Monotonous Tedium of Having Nobody with Whom to Talk.

This did not mean she was silent, however; only one person could hear her, after all, so she nearly always thought aloud. "I can't believe I never tried that before!" exclaimed the excided apparition rather suddenly, startling her only listener-she'd only been muttering before, a habit taken up when she needed to avoid waking her only tie to the corporeal world-and alerting Kanata ("Completely by coincidence, of course," she would later claim) to the end of her time in the metaphorical, metaphysical doghouse. That Kagami tripped over her own shoes and landed face-down in her house's entryway, though, made the ghost wince.

"Tsukasa!" Hiiragi Miki, the twins' mother called from somewhere nearby. "What did I say about watching your-Kagami?"

_That_, on the other hand, got Kanata's giggles going again.

"I'm fine," responded Kagami, with barely-discernable curtness, to her mother's and sister's shock and concern. The vein throbbing in her head promised pain for any annoyances, though, despite its owner's even tone.

Wisely, both Miki and Tsukasa fled.

"What the hell was that?" Kagami hissed with her ever-present talent of imbuing nearly silent sentences with anger.

"What was-oh," Kanata said, before losing herself again. Her attention, like her state of boredom, changed rather quickly, and she once again dived into her mind. "I wonder if I can eat in this form," the ghost thought aloud. "I'm surprised I never tried it before, though I suppose that-"

"You. Come. With. Me." More rage than Kanata thought could possibly be communicated in words filled the staccatoed sentence.

And, perhaps because she lacked a self-preservation instinct (she was dead, after all), Kanata's light laughter sparked once again at the wrath displayed on Kagami's face. Then…

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"You two even respond the same way," Kagami muttered, lowering her hand.

"So you accept that I'm real?"

"No! How did you reach that conclusion?"

"You aren't being logical, Kaga-chan."

"Ghosts cannot exist. It's as simple as that."

"Then explain me."

"Maybe I saw Konata when we were really young." Kagami was growing desperate; she never used indefinite words like "maybe" if she could help it.

Kanata grinned triumphantly. "She spent most of her time in the hospital at my bedside, and she didn't look very much like she does now."

"You can't prove that, and my mind must have predicted how she would look in the future. It explains the differences."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, like the mole, _ahoge_, perpetually half-lidded eyes, annoying cat-grin…" she listed, then trailed off, staring at Kanata suspiciously. "What?"

A wide eyesmile had lit up the blue-haired woman's face, and she knew that Kagami knew what that meant. "Oh, nothing, just that you seem to have noticed quite a bit about my daughter. I wonder why that is, hm?"

An embarrassed blush bloomed across Kagami's face. "Sh-shut up!"

"Kagami?" the slightly tentative voice of Miki sounded from the kitchen. "Why are you still in the floor?"

* * *

**AN: And cut! Thus ends the -Introduction- Arc of _Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_! I've also finally decided how I'm naming chapters: the initials of the Arc name followed by (if necessary) a number. For example, say that there were two Kagami -Introduction- chapters. In this case, they would be called Kagami -I01- and Kagami -I02-. Not only that, but, just for fun, I won't reveal what the Arc names are until the last chapter of that Arc. Anybody who can guess what they are will be recognized then and be given an invisible, metaphorical ghost cookie. **

**Furthermore, I decided on an update schedule. Up to this point, I've updated every two days, and I will continue doing so this week. However, it's currently my spring break, so school might just ruin my carefully-maintained streak. Therefore, I will try to keep a Tuesday-Friday schedule starting April 1.  
**

**Lastly, if I need to take a break for more than a week, I'll try to post filler a filler chapter, concerning aspects of the story not otherwise covered, each week I miss. These will be marked, Character Name -F[_total number of filler chapters thusfar_]-. **

**Thank you very much for last chapter's reviews, comments, favorites, and follows! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 4, Kagami -NA-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, somebody notices Kagami's behavior._

_"You're not that clumsy, and you'd rather go to school half naked than have Matsuri see you like that, so will you please tell me what's going on?"_


	5. Kagami -NA-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 4

Kagami -NA-

"Finished," sighed Kagami in relief as she closed her last textbook. "And before you ask, I'm trying to stay ahead in my studies."

The obviously bored ghost lounging nearby had, at the sound of the twintailed girl's voice, indeed looked up and opened her mouth inquisitively. When Kanata was preempted, however, a brilliantly happy grin worked its way onto her face. "Ah, so you do pay attention to me!"

"Don't push it," Kagami warned, "or else I might just forget your reading pace."

The one-sided subtleties of the pair's communication, developed to talk in public without making their corporeal half seem insane, had infiltrated their regular speech as well; just like they both understood how to get on each other's nerves, so too did they know the other well enough to pick out their hidden messages. In this case, what the teenager actually meant was, "I forgive you, and I won't ignore you again unless you _really_ piss me off."

Not that she'd ever actually say it, to others or herself.

"I knew it!" an ecstatic-seeming Kanata exclaimed.

Kagami would have answered, except there was a knocking at her door. _It's __9:30__ at night! This better not be Matsuri again, or else I might strangle her._

It wasn't Matsuri, the middle child of the Hiiragi family; it was Miki, the mother.

The two Hiiragis, despite their age difference, looked quite similar. Though Miki was a few centimeter's taller, they shared, among other things, the sharp shape of their eyes and a preference for long hair, though Kagami's was a lighter lavender color in contrast to Miki's duller purple. In all, it was apparent that the twintailed girl was her mother's daughter.

"I hope I'm not disturbing anything," she said, looking past Kagami, presumably toward the stacked textbooks by her bed.

Kagami answered, "No, Okaa-san, I just finished. Would you like to come in?"

"Yes, please." Her tone was light, but had an undertone of seriousness only one well-versed in picking such things out, like Kagami, could hear.

Rather surprisingly, Miki decided to sit on the bed and gestured for its owner to join her.

_Something's up._

A silence fell over the room once Kagami joined her mother. Or it would have if Kanata hadn't said something. "She's never up here. I wonder what's bothering her."

_My thoughts exactly._

"Kagami," Miki began, "have you been doing drugs?"

The addressed girl gaped at her mother, speechless, for several seconds, Kanata's giggles the only "sound" in the room.

"What?!" the younger _miko_ whisper-exclaimed, as she was apt to do when someone made such a comment. _Of course, usually, it's Miss McGiggles over there saying things like this._

Miki asked again, "Are you on drugs?"

Kanata collapsed, unable to hold herself up despite her incorporeality.

"No, of course not!"

"Did you eat something funny from the school cafeteria?"

"Tsukasa made lunches this morning."

"What? And she still forgot hers?" Miki sighed. "I guess there's no helping her, sometimes."

_Should you really be saying that about your own daughter?_ Kagami thought, but kept it to herself.

Kanata, on the other hand, in witnessing a situation she obviously perceived to be funnier than most comedy acts, tried to pound the floor-an action that Kagami believed really did not suit her childish giggling laugh-but ended up throwing her right shoulder through the wood instead. Only over a decade of practice kept Kagami herself from laughing.

"Then what's wrong?" Miki's voice pulled her daughter back into the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

An eyebrow rose on the physical mother's forehead. "Kagami, you're not that clumsy, and you'd rather go to school half-naked than have Matsuri see you like that, so will you please tell me what's going on?" A hint of Miki's inner distress leaked into her voice. "Is it a boy? Did he cheat on you? Did he…propose to you?"

_Wait wait wait, back up! How did you even get to that conclusion?!_

In the floor, a pouting Kanata's face resumed teasing-mode. "No, not a boy. Just me and my daughter." The giggles returned full-force.

Resisting the urge to give the blue-haired woman another hard thump to the head, Kagami answered her mother. "No! I-I've never even had a boyfriend…" trailed off the indignant voice, though it never lost its tone. Despite that, the twintailed girl was flooded with a feeling of inadequacy, one that usually led her back to dieting. To her, the conclusion that she simply wasn't pretty enough came naturally (though Kanata usually maintained that she intimidated any potential suitors).

Her mother didn't notice this internal strife, though, as Kagami worked hard to learn how to manipulate her manner of voice. All the concerned Miki heard was the telling embarrassed stutter.

"A proposal doesn't have to come from a boyfriend; an overzealous stalker would do."

"Ew!"

"I actually had a few of them when I was your age-stalkers, I mean, not proposals," Miki continued. She, like her daughters and especially Tsukasa, sometimes became sidetracked during a conversation, and it showed here. "Well, there was one-"

"Okaa-san!" interrupted a flushed Kagami.

Kanata managed to control herself just long enough to say, "Like mother, like daughter, I suppose," before she once again entered a state of unrestrained giggling.

_You, of all people, can't say that, and I don't act that way!_

"Oh, sorry, Kagami," Miki said, returning to the present from whatever creepy past she had fallen into. "What was I saying?" Just as Kagami was about to take advantage of her mother's apparent lapse of memory, though, she continued, "Oh, right, then what's the matter?"

Kagami couldn't help but wonder whether this was Miki's plan from the beginning; now, despite the awkwardness invading the conversation before, the twintailed girl felt more relaxed. Maybe her mother had noticed the oncoming depression? Whatever it was, the tension in the air had vanished. This put Kagami back on edge immediately.

But what startled her more was that, now that she looked, Miki was staring toward the bookshelf, eyes slightly narrowed combing the area, as if she could sense the presence of the now-silent and shocked spirit lying there.

Thus, Kagami, in her instinct to hide Kanata's existence, devised a plan.

_Alright, I actually _need_ the stutter this time…_ "Y-yes, actually." _Nailed it, and _she's_ looking completely bewildered, now, too! Double victory!_ "Tsukasa introduced me to her new friends, and-"

"And one of them is a boy?"

It was a sign of how seriously Kanata was shaken up that she remained silent.

"What? N-no!"

"Kagami, you're blushing."

She was, and if nearly anybody else had mentioned it, she would have responded with, "No, I'm not!" and a hard hit to the head. However, this was her mother; it would be inappropriate to act that way towards her.

Instead, Kagami ignored the comment and continued her ruse. "Takara Miyuki-san was nice and kind, but the other one, Izumi Konata, was nosy and pushy-literally. I mean-" _Great, now I'm _actually _getting worked up!_ "-it was like she didn't know what to do with me, and I can't really dislike her for that, but I just don't understand her!"

By the end of her speech, far more truthful than deceitful, Kagami's soft voice became harsher whispers and Miki was giving her daughter a strange look.

"And that caused you to trip…why?"

_And now, for an _actual_ lie._ "I finally understood an obscure, dirty joke she made." Though used to it after so long, the lavender-haired girl still felt a little bad for lying to her family; it never stopped her, of course, but a little pang invariably shot through her.

"I see…" Miki muttered. "Are you sure that's all?"

At this point, Kagami knew that her mother was just being concerned; there was no way she saw through her daughter's lie, as the only evidence otherwise was a self-proclaimed ghost that only Kagami could see. _If I told her that, I'd be in a psychiatric ward before I could say, "But I've met her daughter!"_

"Yes," answered the teen, though she thought, _No._

"I see," repeated Miki. She rose and walked toward the door, and there were sounds suspiciously similar to several people scrambling away. Once she was there, though, she turned back to the room's corporeal occupant. "You know, if you have any _other_ problems, you can tell me or your father, right?"

Though she preferred to avoid being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Kagami nonetheless answered with a smile, "Yeah, I know."

The smile was returned, and, with one last look-over of Kanata's general area, Miki left. Soon, the sound of her telling off Matsuri, Inori (the eldest sister), and Tadao (the father) could be heard from elsewhere in the house. _At least Tsukasa wasn't there. I'll have to thank her later. _A sigh escaped Kagami's thin lips.

"I was careless."

"She knows I'm here."

Both Kagami and Kanata spoke simultaneously. There was a pause, before:

"No, she doesn't."

"Yes, you were."

"Wait, what?" While Kagami thought her earlier lapse in judgment was definitely bad (like her mother said, she really _wasn't_ that clumsy-outside the kitchen, that is), she doubted that her companion referred to the same incident.

"Your stutter," Kanata explained, though she still looked a bit shaken. "There wasn't anything to be embarrassed over, so Miki-san probably thinks you and Konata-"

"What?!" came the predicted whisper.

"Your blush didn't help," continued the blue-haired ghost with her familiar, slightly smug tone, though it wasn't quite reflected in her eyes. Still…

_Whack!_

"Ow!" came from the short spirit now balancing her curled-up form on the balls of her feet.

"Stop saying embarrassing things!" Kagami hissed angrily. "Besides, we only just met. We're not in a cheap romance novel where people fall in love at first sight, after all."

A strange silence filled the room where there would normally be some sort of comeback, and the twintailed Hiiragi began to think that her mother's strange glances near Kanata had stunned her more than expected. That is, until she realized the tiny woman was staring at her.

"That's not how I thought you would respond to that…"

"What?" Kagami asked while going over the last few seconds of conversation in her head. _I don't think I said anything strange…_

Of course, a teasing look-a true one that lit up her eyes-crossed Kanata's face. "Don't worry, Kaga-chan, I won't tell anybody!"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

_I don't even know what I hit her for,_ was what the twintailed girl thought, but, instead, she said, "I wonder if ghosts can get concussions…"

"Please test it on somebody else."

"It can't hurt that much. You don't even have nerves."

There was a lull in the quiet conversation as Kagami moved to grab a light novel from the bookshelf. Finally, Kanata asked, "So you admit that I'm a ghost?"

"Don't make me hit you again. It's getting tiring."

By then, Kagami had returned with one of her newer books and settled on the floor by her bed. Kanata stood and stumbled over-a show, as a humorous glint was quite visible in her eye and a smile tugging at her lips. Climbing onto the bed, she laid, belly down and head over Kagami's left shoulder.

"You know you're very pretty the way you are, right?"

At Kanata's words, the terrible feeling from earlier, not forgotten but ignored, forced its way back into her mental focus, and she would have winced had she not been so adept at hiding (most of) her feelings.

She didn't answer. Kanata didn't expect her to, nor did she push; it was a touchy subject, and the ghost knew her bounds, despite acting as if she didn't.

Then, like they did every night, they read together in silence.

* * *

**AN: Thus ends Kagami -NA-, the first of this really short story arc. Actually, should I even call it that? It's only two chapters long, but…well, I want to start a new arc when I move to the Tuesday-Friday update schedule, and I didn't want to have chapters overlapping in time slots (so the same three hours won't be written for more than one character-outside of possible filler chapters). **

**In other news, I think this is the longest single scene so far. It probably won't happen again. **

**Lastly, it looks like I've been quite mean to poor Tsukasa so far this story, and I'm not quite sure how it happened. Maybe it's because not many scenes so far include her? Anyway, she actually competes for my "2nd favorite character" spot with Konata (Kagami is first, and I don't usually have ranking spots beyond these). I'll try to include her more-next arc should provide a perfect opportunity. Muahahahaha! **

**Ahem.**

**Thank you very much for all of your reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 5, Konata -NA-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Soujirou gets some "screen"-time. _

_"Hey, Konata, could you help me with this?" called her father from his office; this fact alone made the short girl slightly nervous, though, as she knew what he did in there. _


	6. Konata -NA-

**Note: An important question posed in the reviews has been answered in the AN after the chapter.**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 5

Konata -NA-

Though activities in the Hiiragi household were winding down, several train stations away, the Izumi family was just entering the most active part of their day.

"Konata, is dinner ready?" Soujirou called from the living room where he watched the end of the last of his missed anime episodes. Without that distraction, his daughter knew he would move to do one of his other favorite things, playing erotic games or bothering Konata.

It seemed that, this time, it would be the latter.

"You asked that a minute ago," came a very deadpan answer from the kitchen. If any of Konata's new acquaintances had been present, they would have sworn that the voice could not belong to the short girl, and they would have been wrong. Konata had been fed stories about how her mother, whenever she wasn't in "teasing mode," would act as the _tsukkomi _to Soujirou's _boke_-she even began carrying a _harisen_, at her husband's request, to complete the image, though she never used it.

It became Konata's role in the house; she knew it helped her father accept Kanata's death, though how it did the daughter never asked nor thought about.

"That was a minute ago. This is now." Even over the sound of sizzling and scribbling, Konata heard her father's heavy footsteps approaching. Several seconds passed before he asked, "What are you doing?"

_It must look strange, cooking with one hand and writing with the other, _Konata thought absently. Without turning from her tasks, she answered, "Not homework."

"Do you have any?"

_Sizzle, scribble._

"Not really. Kuroi-sensei tried to give me extra for no reason, but I sweet-talked my way out of it." _He'll change the topic…now._

"So Kuroi-sensei teaches at your school?"

_Sizzle, scribble._

"Yeah." The current world history teacher at Ryouou High School had, just the year before, interned in Konata's junior high class. It hadn't taken long for the two gamers to realize each other's interests and become good friends. _She's still hard on me in class, though._

"Why are you cooking and writing at the same time?" Though the topic suddenly changed, Konata had expected it; her father could be rather predictable.

_Sizzle, scribble._

"The main heroine is more complex than usual, so I'm trying to work her out."

"Which game?"

_Sizzle, scribble._

"I'm better than you. I doubt you can help me much." _That's a lie; he has more experience in _this_ game; he's, like, forty or something now, right?_

"So cruel you are, daughter of mine!" cried the tall, suspicious-looking man, recoiling as if hit.

_Sizzle, scribble. Click!_

_Then again… _"Done."

"You figured her out?"

_Scribble. Clink! Clink-clack. _

Again, a deadpan voice rather unlike her out-of-house tone emerged from the tiny teenager. "I'm still writing, Otou-san."

"Oh."

_Scribble. Thunk! Clink-clack. Thunk!_

"Why are our bowls so loud?" Konata asked. "They're giving me a headache. And what's with this 'Thunk' sound?"

"What did you cook?"

_Scribble. Scrape-clink, scrape-clink!_

"Curry rice," the blue-haired girl responded to her father while carrying the family's food to the table. "It's nearly 11:00, so I decided to make something a bit simpler than usual."

"And it went, 'Thunk'? Should I be worried?" joked Soujirou lightly.

_Clink-clack, clink-clack! Scribble._

"You were standing right there, and it always makes that sound."

"Really? I never noticed."

"That's because you never cook. _Itadakimasu._"

"_Itadakimasu!_"

And, throughout their dinner, a continuous _scribble_ could be heard.

* * *

A short while later, Konata's simultaneous dish washing and plot scribing was interrupted.

"Hey, Konata, could you help me with this!" called her father from his office; this fact alone made the short girl nervous, though, as she knew what he did in there.

"Yeah, sure!" she responded anyway. "I'll be there in a minute." _Let's see, so far I'm missing exactly _what_ I need to uncover and resolve to follow the Kagami route, as well as most of her quirks. I have at least until the end of the school year for that, unless her father gets transferred or something. I wonder what he does. _

Marking that down as a side note on her plot paper, Konata, as she had every few minutes since meeting the _tsundere miko_, which she still had trouble believing could exist outside a computer game, expanded Kagami's subscores (Trust, Acceptance, and Connectivity for Friendship; Attraction, Attachment, and Commitment for Affection). _No change, which makes since, but anything can happen. If I had told myself yesterday that the Trust and Attachment ss's fluctuate like that, myself would call I crazy. _

_Then again_, continued the blue-haired girl's thoughts as she put the last of the dishes on the drying rack, _the game just started. I might be overthinking this entire process because of It. Yes, I'll call It "It." That capital letter really emphasizes It's importance to the plot. _

Tilting her head toward the ceiling, an unusually melancholic sigh emerged from her small body. _I really messed up today. Going into EAWT means she saw _me_, which would be fine if my natural personality weren't so unappealing. Even worse, I can't _stop_ using EAWT-it would be too dramatic a change and her Trust would fall, but her Acceptance and Connectivity might suffer if I continue like this. This isn't even considering the Affection ss's, which-_

"Are you coming, Konata?" Soujirou called again.

At her father's reminder, Konata, despite the torrent of thoughts raging through her brain, replied, "Yeah!" and approached the office.

"Ah, there you are!" exclaimed Konata's ecstatic-sounding father, and though Konata couldn't see whether he actually _was_, his face probably mimicked his voice. "Why are your eyes closed?"

"Are you decent?" answered Konata with a question.

"Of course!"

"Are you sure? There was that one time you scarred Yui-nee-san when-"

"Please don't bring that up!" He sounded genuinely ashamed.

Konata, despite her better judgment, peeked a little through her left eye. Not seeing anything she shouldn't-only the erotic games, manga, and anime strewn across the room-she opened them as fully as she ever did. "At least you _can_ feel shame," she deadpanned.

A smile lit the man's face as he recoiled away. "Ah, my own daughter! So cruel!" he exclaimed, before glomping onto the much smaller girl. "Please help me, Konata!"

"You're too clingy," the smothered _otaku_ muttered through her father's short hair. _I can't blame him, though. I'm pretty sure I maxed his Friendship score, though the process raised his Affection uncomfortably high…_ "What do you need help with?"

"I can't figure out how to get to the love scene," whined Soujirou, who had ignored his daughter's complaints and only squeezed her tighter. "Random things keep happening to her, like her parents getting new jobs in Kyrgyzstan, or a building collapsing on their house and forcing her to move away, or a car hitting and putting her in a coma for the rest of her life!"

_Oh, that game. _Konata remembered it well; she'd bought it to practice for life, but it turned out way too easy for her, though reviews said it was extremely difficult. "You have to do everything right, like canceling certain things on certain days, even if it might hurt her. Otherwise, really bad stuff can happen…or, at least, that's what it said on the box."

This was the main reason Konata gave the game to her father: it required the player to emotionally hurt the heroine too much for it to be of any use for her. Though the characters on the computer had no feelings of their own, those in real life _did_, and laying siege upon them the way the game emphasized was apt to severely injure most subscores to irreparable levels. _In theory, that is. I'd never actually test that on somebody. _

"And how do I recognize the end game events before they happen?"

"The text box takes note of really important things like that. You just have to know how to recognize them."

* * *

Around midnight, Konata's multitasking-this time with both her plot paper and the game she and Kuroi-sensei, played-a knock sounded from her closed bedroom door.

"Hey, Konata," Soujirou's voice came from the hallway, "can I come in?"

The text box amended this with, he said with a tone of concern.

"Sure!" she responded immediately; something important was about to happen, as, like she said earlier, the text box _always_ picks up really important things. _Like Kagami's muttering earlier_, shot though the gamer's head, inciting a glance toward that particular spot on her surprisingly empty, despite all her scribbling, paper.

Without her text box to help pick out important details, Konata wouldn't have been ready for the unusual expression of fatherly concern on Soujirou's face. "What's up, Konata?"

Konata, as was her habit around the huge (in comparison) man, responded with a deadpan tone, "I should be asking you that. You seem weirdly paternal right now."

"You seem weirdly meticulous." _That_ shocked Konata; only in those rare times of actually fulfilling his duties as her father would Soujirou respond like that. "Even when you were explaining how to beat the game earlier, you were writing."

_Was I? I didn't even notice._

"I know you're not studying, and you never have _that_ much trouble with a game, so something must be bothering you."

A quarter-second pause passed between them, in which Konata's mind went through several possible options-they were even displayed in her trusty text box. Then, she answered, "The high school setting hosts many possible routes."

"No boys!" came a deep, outraged yell from Soujirou.

"So girls are okay?"

All of the sudden heat vanished from the creepy man's tall form, which stiffened at Konata's question, and a full minute passed before he regained the ability to move. "I-I'm going to leave you to it, then."

"Close the door behind you!" Konata called, smirking, to her father's back as he did his absolute best to appear unaffected by the question. _At least he tried,_ she thought, and turned back to her game.

_Nanakon: Oi, Izumi, are you back?_

_Konakona: yeah ty 4 protect_

_Nanakon: You really should try to use correct grammar around your teacher._

_Konakona: __ur__ worhis, not gram_

_Nanakon: Well, I expect perfect grammar on your homework this year. _

_Konakona: ;;_

_Konakona logged off_

_Better not get back on tonight, _thought Konata as she crawled away from the computer. _I'll just focus on figuring out Kagami, instead._

* * *

**AN: And…done! Thus ends the -Night After- arc! Hopefully, there won't be any more of these with this few chapters, but who knows? _I_ certainly didn't plan this ahead of time. **

**There has been some confusion regarding what exactly I mean by "arc." I'm really sorry! For this story's purposes, it's a group of chapters with a similar theme marked by the same designation (for this and the last chapter, this was -NA-, the -Night After- story arc, and the next one is labeled -FS-). Most of the future arcs will be longer than those already posted and have a continuous storyline. Thank you, mariofan48, for pointing out that I didn't explain this properly, and, once again, I'm really, really sorry for the confusion! **

**Remember, I'm switching to a new posting schedule, Tuesday-Friday rather than every two days, starting…well, now, I suppose, as the next post will be on the night of April 1. Don't worry; I won't do something April Fools-y with the chapter. **

**Also, the game mentioned doesn't actually exist. I made it up.**

**Thank you for the many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 6, Kagami -FS01-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Kagami suffers a minor injury. _

_Her hand throbbed again, forcing her to drop the pencil. _That's it,_ thought the very annoyed _miko_, _I'm just going to hit them with my right hand from now on.


	7. Kagami -FS01-

**Note: I'm trying something new with Kagami's thoughts to help differentiate Kagami's style with the others'. See the AN after reading for more details. **

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises. I _definitely_ do not own "_Hare Hare Yukai_."

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 6

_Two Chapters Ago in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"You know you're very pretty the way you are, right?"_

_At Kanata's words, the terrible feeling from earlier, not forgotten but ignored, forced its way back into her mental focus, and she would have winced had she not been so adept at hiding (most of) her feelings. _

_She didn't answer. __Kanata__ didn't expect her to, nor did she push; it was a touchy subject, and the ghost knew her bounds, despite acting as if she didn't. _

Kagami -FS01-

Konata, however, was a different story.

"Hah? A diet?" the blue-haired girl said in a very flat tone and sporting a small, v-shaped frown. "Why're you on a diet?"

The group of girls-two twins, one apparently misplaced grade schooler, one pink-haired and busty adult-like figure, and a ghost-stood outside of school one week after meeting. At Konata's (_Rather insensitive, I would think_) question, both Kanata and Tsukasa cringed; they knew how serious this was to Kagami.

All it had taken was giving the truthful reason as for why Kagami's lunch was lighter than her sister's to get this strange reaction. _Actually, how did she notice when she hasn't even held it yet?_

"Oi, runt," a rather (_Very_) angry Kagami answered, "don't ask such personal questions."

"Konata-san poses a good question, Kagami-san," added Miyuki, which was rather shocking considering her generally polite manner.

_Considering _her _figure, I guess she doesn't see it as something that important,_ realized the twintailed _miko_ with an air of incompetence. However, any response she might have given her unexpected assailant was cut off by the first of her verbal opponents.

"I mean, you obviously don't _need_ it," Konata spoke with a tone that meant she was thinking aloud, getting quieter by the word, "unless you want to be thinner than Tsukasa, which would be a bit weird-you're twins, after all. And the way Tsukasa reacted when I asked the question means this happened before…"

Kagami needed to interrupt. "Wait, how did you reach _that_ conclusion?!" Careful, subconscious selection of tone and wording made it seem as if she were saying that Konata was wrong, when, in fact, she was expressing how surprised she was that the _otaku_ paid that much attention.

Apparently having realized her thoughts were heard, Konata's cat-grin re-emerged on her face and she answered, "Ah, just thinking aloud, Kagami! It is strange, though," was tacked on as an afterthought.

"Well, sorry for being strange!"

"A-ah, should we go to class?" asked (_the cowardly sister of mine who wouldn't help me_) Tsukasa.

"Yes, let's," responded (_the over-endowed-but-too-sweet-to-be-angry-at_) Miyuki. "Goodbye, Kagami-san."

"Bye, Onee-chan! See you at lunch!"

"See ya, Kagami!"

* * *

Japanese was the last class Kagami had before lunch, and it required a lot of writing, which was, at the time, surprisingly difficult for the twintailed girl.

Her hand throbbed again, forcing her to drop the pencil. _That's it, _thought the very annoyed _miko_, _I'm just going to hit them with my right hand from now on. _

"You know," a timid- yet resolute-sounding Kanata spoke up when she saw her hauntee's unwilling pause in writing, "Konata was right. You _don't_ need it."

"Shut up!" hissed a still-steaming Kagami, turning her head away. She really _hadn't_ wanted her sister's friends (_They're not mine, yet, especially Konata!_) to discover one of her insecurities, but a lapse in judgment penetrated her defenses. _Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should never have told that…that…_girl_! I just thought that, just maybe…_

Despite the promise of pain radiating from the lavender-haired girl (_Maybe her daughter's support is influencing her? Isn't it normally the other way around?_), Kanata moved to the other side of the desk and placed her face in front of the pissed _miko_'s. "But, Kaga-chan-"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Ow!" The result of the well-disguised-as a stretch, a common sight in the writing-intensive class-action was not quite what Kagami had in mind. _I _really_ need to start hitting with my right hand…_

* * *

"Hmhmhmhm hmhmhm hm…"

_I'm not curious…I'm not curious…_

"..chikyuugi wo hmhmhmhmhmhmhm…"

_I'm not curious…I'm _really_ not curious…_

"Hmhhm hm hmhm hmhm hm ikeru ne."

_I'm not curious…I'm-dammit!_

Ignoring the giggling of Kanata, who apparently watched the internal struggle on the _miko_'s face, Kagami asked the happily humming Konata, "What are you humming?"

Apparently, it was the _wrong_ thing to ask.

Her cat-grin vanished, _ahoge_ stood straight (_How is that even possible? It doesn't have any muscles or tendons in it, but Tsukasa's bow does the same thing…what the hell?_), and short body grew rigid while, for the first time since Kagami met the girl, the normally closed or half-lidded eyes grew "wide." _They look a lot more like __Kanata__'s, now, _passed idly through Kagami's brain.

"You don't know?" Konata's voice, shocked, breathy, and soft (_So she _can_ speak quietly…_), traveled across the now-silent table. It was so distinct from her usual tone that the curious-looking Tsukasa and Miyuki didn't comment. "You…I thought…never in my life…"

"Oi, isn't that a bit of an overreaction?" Kagami questioned simply. "I mean, you only said four or five of the words, so it's not-"

_Crash!_ went a chair as its occupant suddenly stood.

"Izumi!" Kuroi-sensei cried out from behind her desk, on which her legs were propped up (_You really shouldn't be doing that in a skirt…_). "Don't damage-"

"That should be enough!"

Konata's loud and stern admonition of Kagami and complete ignorance of the nearby adult's words (_You _should_ listen to the teacher, you know_) caught the attention of the few remaining people in the classroom. The twintailed girl herself, however, was completely and utterly baffled by the actions.

Oblivious of the many eyes on her, Konata continued, "It's one of the most important and well-known songs of the age! Everybody knows what it is!"

Kanata, of all people, recovered first. "I _have_ heard her mutter something with that tune in her sleep when I visited…"

"Apparently, not everybody," Kagami shot back after her haunter's words.

These words, again, were probably not the best of choices.

Konata cried, "Back, heathen!" herself stumbling away, while pulling from her shirt what looked like the English letter "H" with a familiar figure on one of its legs…

"…Why do you wear a Haruhi necklace?"

"Ah, so you do know! You have no excuse! Penal-"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

_Right hand is definitely better._ "I've seen the novels, but they never seemed to fit my inter-"

"Blasphemy!" cried an apparently offended Konata, rolling away (_How can she do that? It almost looked martial arts-y…_) and holding up the emblem (Kagami assumed the short girl considered it some sort of holy symbol). "Away, hater of all things interesting and-"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Stop saying weird things!"

"Protect me Miku-I mean, Miyuki-san!"

"I've been wondering about that, actually," Kagami said in a suddenly calm voice. "You call me 'Kagami' and Tsukasa 'Tsukasa,' but you call Miyuki-san 'Miyuki-san.' Why is that?"

"Oh, thank you for reminding me, Kagami!" exclaimed Konata, shifting from recently-concussed and scared to energetic and happy in a split second. "I finally decided!"

"…That explains nothing."

A very amused-looking Kanata spoke up for the first time in a while-she was apparently just fine with watching the two of them go at each other-saying, "I think she means…"

There was about half a second of pause while the ghost watched her daughter, who was looking at Kagami with a familiar smug look often on Kanata's face, before the two spoke in creepy synchronization.

"Character types!" Konata continued by herself from there, unaware of her mother's presence in the classroom. "It took a week, but my first impressions were correct! You-" she pointed at Miyuki, "-are the necessary 'Intelligent but clumsy _moe_ character'!"

"What are you-" Kagami tried to interrupt, but was ignored.

"You-" this time, she indicated Tsukasa, "-are the 'forgetful but adorable klutz'!"

"Oi, should you really be saying that about someone else's sister?"

Rather than answering the twintailed girl, Konata just looked at her with eyes closed, expression expectant. _Like hell I'll ask!_

"I know you're curious, Kaga-chan," (_No, I'm not!_) Kanata verbally poked, joining her daughter's side.

The stare-off between Kagami and the near-identical women across from her stayed a stalemate for nearly a minute (_Wasn't their teacher angry at Konata? Why hasn't she said anything?_) before it was interrupted by an unlikely source.

"Um, Onee-chan," Tsukasa said in a timid voice, "I'd actually like to know, though I don't really understand…"

"I would too, Kagami-san," Miyuki joined in once Tsukasa had.

The dual smug looks intensified, and Kagami could almost hear the two's voices, surprisingly different considering how similar they looked, saying, "Ji~!"

_I'm not curious. I'm still not curious. My resolve definitely isn't wavering. I'm-dammit, not again! _"Fine! What insanely descriptive title are you going to force on me?"

Konata (and Kanata, though she was invisible to everybody else) grinned in triumph. The former puffed out her (_Small_) chest and, with the self-importance of an empress giving a ceremonial speech, said, "_Tsundere_."

_…What?_

_Rrrrrring!_ the bell that signaled the end of lunch sounded, preventing Kagami from questioning the one-word answer or why the (_Pesky_) ghost broke down in one of the most extreme fits of giggles the _miko_ had ever seen.

* * *

"I'm guessing you know what that runt meant?" Kagami asked her invisible companion in a very low voice; class had started again, and the twintailed girl didn't want to attract negative attention from the teacher after only a week.

However, she didn't get an answer, as Kanata, recently recovered from her previous amused breakdown, dissolved into an unintelligible mess yet again.

_Seriously?_ thought the newly-declared _tsundere_ (_Whatever _that_ means_). _One word couldn't be this amusing. _Several instances of similar situations from novels passed through her head. _…Shut up! My brain isn't supposed to betray me like that!_

It took a very long time for Kanata to, once again, get over her giggles (_Finally!_), but the only words she said, with an air of knowledgeability (_Arrogance_) were, "Sou-kun taught me many things."

"So it's some _otaku_ thing, right?"

No answer, just (_Those damn_) giggles.

* * *

After school, as the group of four walked toward the train station, Kagami finally asked, "What exactly did you mean earlier?" Kanata, of course, broke down; she apparently still found the situation hilarious.

"Hm?" replied Konata, teasing look and near-fixed cat-grin in place. "You seemed so reluctant to know before. What changed, Kagami?"

_Urk! Avoid the stutter! Avoid the stutter! _"Answer the question!" _Yes!_

Despite the triumph over her weakness (_Hey!_), the blue-haired high schooler's grin grew wider. "That!" she declared, dramatically pointing at the elder Hiiragi twin. "The entirety of your existence is contained in your reaction!"

"What the hell, Konata."

"Oh, come on! How can you not see it? Tell me _you_ guys see it, Tsukasa, Miyuki-san."

"Um…I still don't know what it means, Kona-chan," replied a nervous Tsukasa, who was glancing between her sister and friend as if they were about to start brawling in the street.

Miyuki, too, seemed a little confused. "I am sorry, Konata-san. I still do not know what '_tsundere_' means."

The tiny girl muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "First they don't know _Hare Hare Yukai_, and now _this_?" before straightening up and declaring, v-frown in place, "This is unacceptable! How can you call yourselves Japanese and not know your own culture?"

"Oi, don't mix up _otaku_ and nationality," Kagami interrupted what she was sure would become an "inspirational" speech.

The group's ghostly chaperone, though, rebuked her hauntee's statement. "According to Sou-kun, there are actually quite a few people who like the _tsundere_ character type without necessarily having his interests."

Konata, on the other hand, ignored the interruption. "Over the summer, I will have to educate you on the wonderful ways of the _galge_ gamer-no exceptions! I expect only the best from my students-" (_Wait, don't decide this on your own!_) "-and there will be tests!"

Like at the end of lunch period earlier, Kagami was prevented from responding to the (_Ridiculous_) declaration, but, this time, a simple bell did not satisfy Fate. No, the conversation's end attributed itself to-

"Well, well, well," the huge, burly boy said, emerging from a nearby alleyway, "look what we have here: a few helpless high school girls."

Kanata had finally gone silent (_And I don't even get to enjoy it…_). Tsukasa squeaked and Miyuki squealed, stumbling away; the latter tripped over her own feet, tumbling into the more forgetful Hiiragi twin and sending both crashing to the pavement. Kagami, herself, was terrified, but, out of a habit forged from looking strong for her sister, hid it well and slid between the gargantuan figure before her and the two helpless girls behind. She'd be useless in a fight, of course, but it might give them time to run (_Tsukasa won't run, though; she'd never leave me behind_).

Then, the least expected one of them all (_Though I should have expected it, knowing her_) penetrated the second of silence. Konata's voice rang out, clear and happy, as if a threat of intimate violation hadn't just occurred.

"Oh! It's been a long time, hasn't it, Kei-kun?"

_…What._

* * *

**AN: And done! This is the first chapter of the -FS- story arc, the first one with multiple chapters for each of the main characters! I'm so excited to actually reach actual plotlines rather than exposition-filled introductory chapters. **

**As I noted at the very beginning of the chapter, I'm trying something new with Kagami's thoughts to differentiate her and the others. Basically, its her commentary on her/my narration. At the very least, it will continue throughout this story arc if only because I want to be somewhat consistent. If you can, please give me your impressions of this new idea-is it well done, should I never have changed it in the first place, or should I just switch to first person like I thought I would after the Prologue? (note: the last one probably won't happen)**

**Next, I think I know when the first filler weeks are going to be. It sort of stinks, because I only just recently changed the update schedule to twice a week _and_ just started a new story arc, but, luckily, the filler ideas I have actually fit in with this one's theme. **

**Anyway, my first two filler weeks will be the week of April 22 and 25, and the week of April 29 and May 2. My reason: the Moste Dreaded Bane of All Fanfiction Writers, Final Exams. Therefore, on April 25 and May 2, there will be "updates" that will contain filler chapters. **

**Thank you very much for the many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 7, Konata -FS01-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Konata undergoes a transformation._

_'It was, for lack of a better word, _masculine_.'_

_What does this mean? Did Konata's chromosomes undergo a spontaneous time-traveling change? Did she discover the secret Hiiragi mecha? _Is _there even a secret Hiiragi mecha? Find out most of these and more on Friday!_


	8. Konata -FS01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 7

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"Well, well, well," the huge, burly boy said, emerging from a nearby alleyway, "look what we have here: a few helpless high school girls."_

_Then, the least expected one of them all (_Though I should have expected it, knowing her_) penetrated the second of silence. Konata's voice rang out, clear and happy, as if a threat of intimate violation hadn't just occurred. _

_"Oh! It's been a long time, hasn't it, Kei-kun?" _

…What.

Konata -FS01-

He flinched in fear, body twitching away, but held his ground. 

_Well, that idea's toast,_ Konata thought with a mite of exasperation. _Really, I'd hoped he remembered the _last _time he tried this…_

"Oi, Konata," Kagami's voice interrupted what might have become an epic internal monologue, "you know this guy?"

The _tsundere_ seems nervous and scared, though she's putting on a brave face for her sister. _Thanks for the detail, Text Box-chan!_ She seems to believe herself the only one around with any ability to defend herself, but doesn't appear confident that her abilities will suffice. _Self-confidence again…I'll deal with that later._

Konata responded anyway. "Oh, not really. He's just the…which one are you, K-kun? The twentieth? Yeah, the twentieth. I decided to start using the English alphabet after I used 1 through 9."

"That doesn't explain anything!" exclaimed the aggravated-looking _miko_. "And why do you ask for help with English when you know the alphabet?"

"Well, it has to do with this contest-"

K-kun, fed up with this banter, seems ready to attack. His muscles bulge and eyes narrow. _His muscles do seem rather more…gigantic than last time, but I can use that to my advantage._

"Stop bickering!" spat the large boy, raising one huge fist. "Don't make me clobber you!"

_Perfect! A rare chance to raise Trust!_ Konata stepped forward, not directly in front of Kagami and the others but still closer to their adversary. _Don't want a missed attack to hit them… _"You remember last time, right, K-kun?" the blue-haired _otaku_ said, a hint of taunting on her voice.

"I've gotten better since then, you cocky bitch!"

Konata, however, ignored the angry male and turned toward her group. "Let's go, guys. This guy's not that-"

She was, however, interrupted by Kagami. "Konata, look out!"

The heavy footsteps and roar was warning enough, but that Kagami had bothered to mention the outraged barbarian-type character's charge was touching. _Just as planned, _was Konata's devious thoughts before she blinked-

-and the interface changed.

Normally, the interface was rather flowery, with cute background music-though Konata usually had it on mute-and text formats styled and color-coded uniquely for each character. In addition, it had three different boxes, the ever-useful text box, the plot- and stat-relating Score box, and the rarely-used-but-still-important alert box (which had, now that Konata thought about it, mentioned K-kun's attack from behind).

At the moment, though, the Score box had disappeared entirely and the alert box was replaced by Konata's health bar, half the "screen" in length with a stylized, circular picture of a blue-haired, catgrinning girl at the far left end that was adorned with seven small clear circles along its border. The text box stayed, but it, too, had changed; it was, for lack of a better word, _masculine_. Rather than the light, gentle border color it had before, it now seemed more like a metal blade cut in a hollow rectangle.

_It looks awesome! _Konata celebrated in her head. _Usually, I just get a Pokémon-styled interface for battles, but those are usually me versus a whole bunch of people. It's been a while since I've had a one-on-one, so I forgot how cool this is._

As the text box reduced itself, K-kun's health bar appeared on the upper right side of the "screen," which panned out into a transparent third-person view that still, somehow, allowed Konata to see normally. _Alright, let's do this! _

Konata turned around, absently noting the tiny text box's new message, prefaced by an over-exaggerated picture of a freaked-out Kagami. Kagami: *Gasp!* _Mildly amusing, if completely out of character. Anyway…_

_Hold X_

The giant fist that had nearly hit the blue-haired girl missed due to her sudden spinning toward her opponent. Konata grabbed the sleeve of the unidentified school uniform and held tightly but stealthily. When K-kun pulled his fist back, the tiny, grinning girl came along too. The unusually colossal boy realized this only when a blue missile got near to his face; panicking, he threw his arms back, speeding up the living projectile.

_Release X, Hold X, \/, , \/, A_

The airborne girl let go of her acceleration source, only to grab on to his hair, using it to flip her body in order to press her feet against the back of his knees, and pull down _hard_. With the ability to straighten his legs gone, K-kun bent backwards under the force of the speeding Konata's pressure on his leg joint and head.

_\/, , R; , /\, \/, B_

In a feat that appeared to break physics, Konata allowed her feet to finally touch the ground, only to throw her adversary over her shoulder and watch his health bar nearly hit zero. Then, as a finishing move, she jumped, flipped in midair, and slammed her small body down, bottom first, on the lecherous boy's stomach.

It was sheer coincidence that her right foot landed on his crotch.

"Victory!" cried Konata as her interface reverted to its base form. Standing, she began to dance on K-kun's unconscious body.

"Oi, Konata, isn't that enough?" Kagami's awed voice penetrated the triumphant haze that had descended upon Konata.

_I forgot they were there…_ thought the self-proclaimed master of _otaku-jitsu_, but she said, "No! I must dance on the corpses of my enemies!" Her plans for hostile frivolity were foiled by Kagami, who pulled her off of the boy. "Hey, no fair! I want to keep dancing on his-"

_Whack!_

"Ow!" _Heh, silly Kagami. You just confirmed what I haven't checked; your trust must have risen if you handle me like that after seeing me pwn K-kun._

Tsukasa spoke up from where she still hadn't risen, tangled with Miyuki's body. "Sh-shouldn't we call the police?"

_Ah! I knew I was forgetting something!_ "That's a great idea, Tsukasa!" Konata exclaimed, before slipping Kagami's phone from her pocket.

"Hey!"

_Rrrring! Rrrring! Rrrr-click!_ "Hello, this is Narumi Yui."

"Hey, Yui-nee-chan! Could you come over here and arrest this guy?"

"Ah, Konata! So somebody actually bothered you more than once?"

"Yep! K-kun's unconscious. I've gained more levels than he has since 7th grade."

"Number…twenty? Alright, I'll be right there."

_Click!_

"What the hell, Konata?" Kagami angrily asked, swiping her cell phone from Konata's hands. "That didn't sound like the police!"

"Yui-nee-chan is a traffic cop," dismissed Konata, stealing the phone right back from the twintailed Hiiragi. "I'll put her number on speed dial for you so you don't have to wait for the normal police."

Before the over-athletic _otaku_ could follow her words, however, the phone was, yet again, back in its owner's possession. "Don't mess with my phone! Don't you think that a traffic cop would be a _bit_ out of depth in this kind of situation? And what do you mean by 'wait for the-'"

_Screech!_

The alert bar had warned Konata just a second ahead of time, allowing her to cover her ears. Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki, however, took the unholy noise full-force and cringed.

"Oh, it's Yui-nee-san!" Konata exclaimed happily as a beat-up green car, police lights a-blazing, came to a very sudden and loud stop next to the group.

Kagami's face says something like, "_She's_ a traffic cop? Does she even know driving rules?" However, her muttering under her breath is indecipherable.

"Hm? Did you say something, Kagami?"

A very short beat of silence preceded an angry, "No!"

_That's quite suspicious, Kagami!_

"So, where's the scoundrel?" Yui said, climbing out of the car with a relaxed catgrin on her face.

Kagami stared incredulously at the police uniform-clad woman, before glancing at Konata and asking, "So, you're sisters?"

"Nah, cousins," Konata replied, leading the officer to K-kun's beat-up body. "But she's around often enough that I just call Yui-nee-san, 'Yui-nee-san.'"

"…So you refuse to use honorifics for me and Tsukasa, but happily apply them to Miyuki and your cousin."

"Yep!"

Handcuffing the still-unconscious boy, Yui displayed the same unusual strength as Konata, hefted the huge guy over her shoulder, and threw him in the back of the police car. "You'll have to introduce me to your friends later, Konata. Technically, I'm supposed to be watching the road on the other side of the city-it's why it took so long to get here-so I have to get going. I'll come by later!" One leap into the car later and she was off, lights bright and speed limit bypassed.

"…Are you sure she's a traffic cop?" Kagami asked, staring down the road.

"Yep!" replied Konata, who was pulling Tsukasa away from Miyuki. "Don't take her all for yourself, Tsukasa! I want to use her chest as a pillow too!"

All Miyuki responded was, "Eh?" with a confused look on her face. Tsukasa just had a blank look as if she didn't understand, while her twin glared, unnoticed by anybody except Konata, at the mentioned body section.

"Ah, it looks like Kagami's jealous!"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

* * *

"…and he said he'd plead guilty as long as he couldn't see Konata again," Yui finished, nodding toward the short, blue-haired girl working nearby. Those two and Soujirou were in the kitchen, Konata doing the actual cooking while the others chatted away.

"That's my girl!" a very proud father exclaimed. "Like a little vigil-_loli_!"

"Don't make up such strange, perverted words," came an unusually defensive response from Konata. _He knows I don't like it when he brings _that_ up._

"Oh, sorry Konata!" exclaimed the still-happy Soujirou. "At least your martial arts lessons paid off!"

"They didn't help at all."

"Eh?" Yui interrupted the bickering daughter-father duo. "You mean you didn't learn anything from the classes?"

Soujirou glomped his daughter with more enthusiasm than Konata believed healthy. "She beat the teacher two weeks in!" he exclaimed happily, disregarding that his actions could lead to a ruined dinner.

"Really?!" Yui sounded even more impressed than the creepy man nuzzling his rather annoyed daughter. "No wonder I haven't beaten you. That's amazing, Kona-"

_Thud!_

"…Why did the _soup_ go thud?" asked the now-wary cop.

Soujirou, too, froze, staring at the bowls strangely.

_Thud!_ went the next bowl, and the next. Then, Konata waited…

And waited…

And waited…

"…I can't move, Otou-san."

"Oh, sorry!"

* * *

**AN: And here's Konata -FS01-! **

**Unlike the author's notes before this one, I don't have much to say here. I will remind anybody reading this that the weeks of the 22nd and 29th are filler weeks; I will post short, in-universe chapters that don't necessarily fit in with continuity on those Fridays (the 25th and 2nd). **

**Thank you very much for your many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! This time, I would like to give extra thanks to Gigarot for feedback on last chapter's experimentation. **

**Thank you again! Here's a preview for next chapter, Chapter 8, ****Kanata**** -FS01-**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, a hilarious situation occurs._

_'__Kanata__ couldn't help it; she giggled at the sight. This was a mistake.'_

_'As Kagami subtly glared in her direction, the giggles that had caused the incident returned, intensified.'_


	9. Kanata -FS01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 8

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"…Are you sure she's a traffic cop?" Kagami asked, staring down the road. _

_"Yep!" replied Konata, who was pulling Tsukasa away from Miyuki._ _"Don't take her all for yourself, Tsukasa! I want to use her chest as a pillow too!"_

_All Miyuki responded was, "Eh?" with a confused look on her face. Tsukasa just had a blank look as if she didn't understand, while her twin glared, unnoticed by anybody except Konata, at the mentioned body section. _

_"Ah, it looks like Kagami's jealous!" _

Whack!

_"Ow!"_

Kanata -FS01-

After Konata left the train, wearing several new lumps on her head and a smile that said she regretted nothing, Kagami's angrily muttered, "That annoying _otaku_ is going to have permanent brain damage if she keeps up like this."

Tsukasa glanced warily at her sister, but only giggles came from Kanata. "I don't think anything you do to her will last, Kaga-chan. They have contacts in the health industry from before I died."

"Don't say such depressing things with a cheerful face!" was the near-silent hissing comeback from the long-haired Hiiragi twin.

The ghost reacted as she always did when Kagami acted like this; her incorporeality stopped the joyful noises from filling the train car and entrancing the local _lolicon_ population, luckily for Kanata-and Soujirou, for that matter.

Even more aggravated than before, the recently-declared _tsundere_-that memory still caused Kanata to break down-continued her paused rant. "And what's with her being able to easily beat such a large guy? I mean, he had to have a _lot_ of muscle, so a fall like that shouldn't have hurt him like it did!"

Before Kanata could respond to this, Tsukasa interrupted, her voice holding what most might hear as fear but, as the _miko_ and ghost across from her understood, instead was hesitation at putting forward her own opinion; being the youngest meant few gave her thoughts much credibility. "But, Onee-chan, Konata did save us from K-kun."

"You're calling him that, too?" Kagami deflected easily, though Kanata knew Tsukasa would see through it. "It's not even his real name. Anyway," continued the twintailed girl before another interruption could occur, "if she spent the time to learn the English alphabet for some contest, why can't she do her own work rather than ask me every day?"

"Maybe she just wants to be near you, Kaga-chan."

The statement was ignored, just like Tsukasa's attempts to defend the still-living blue-haired girl, but whatever her next complaint would have been halted short of her mouth. The expression the rest of her face took-and a seemingly unconscious pinch of the skin of her hip-revealed to her two closest friends exactly what she was thinking about.

Kanata didn't dare annoy her hauntee further throughout the ride, and entertained herself by resuming a problem she had tried to work out all week. "…but if I tried to eat something, even if I didn't have to hold it with my hands, it would touch me all the way through my digestive tract…"

* * *

Much later, after the Hiiragi family had eaten and Kagami had gotten strange looks from the frequent pauses in her meal, her reactions Kanata's continual musings about eating as a ghost, the living majority of the group sat down in front of the television, while an invisible spirit watched another "program" entirely.

At first, all six Hiiragis were completely enraptured by the game show, and Kanata was able to see the similarities and differences amongst the family. Most-Tsukasa, Matsuri, Inori, and Tadao-had short hair with very similar styles, while Kagami and Miki were the only ones with long hair. On a different note, the only female of them that didn't have some variation of their mother's purple hair was Matsuri, known to many as the troublemaker of the Hiiragi _miko_. Sharpness of the eyes could be seen spread more evenly throughout the group; Miki, Inori, and, of course, Kagami all had this trait, while Tadao's slightly more rounded ones obviously influenced Matsuri and Tsukasa.

Kanata muttered quietly to herself, "That would make for a very long descriptive paragraph, wouldn't it?"

Then, as they were apt to do, the Hiiragi females began to drift into their own thoughts. Tsukasa, naturally, was the first to do so, eyes drifting slightly upward and a dazed look appearing on her face.

Matsuri and Inori, who were the two most variable in their "drift off time," as Kanata called it, shifted their faces to the left and right, respectively, almost simultaneously. The former's content smile became somewhat mischievous in the process, though, and the resident ghost wondered if she should warn her hauntee. "Probably; she's been hitting me way too much, recently, and I don't want to give her another reason."

Miki's only hint of any sort of disinterest in the goings on of her husband's favorite show was a slight tilt of her head to the left. Not that Tadao noticed anything, though, as he was far too used to the family's tendencies to take note of this kind of thing.

Finally, Kagami, in an interesting mix of her twin's and mother's actions, looked rather like she saw something of extreme interest on the ceiling. In the end, the entire family, besides Tadao, had drifted off, looking off in whichever way. Kanata couldn't help it; she giggled at the sight.

This was a mistake.

As the only one who could hear the over-amused spirit, the sudden sound rather rudely shook Kagami from her daze, causing her to jump suddenly, bumping into Tsukasa, the easiest one of them all to frighten with such actions. The jostled youngest Hiiragi let out a relatively soft, "Eek!" that, despite its low volume, pierced the eardrum's of Inori, the sister closest in proximity to the sound's origin besides Kagami. In response to the rather painful noise, the oldest daughter jumped away, holding her ears, into her mother, who fell into Matsuri, who knocked over Tadao's chair with her flailing arms.

As Kagami subtly glared in her direction, the giggles that had caused the incident returned, intensified.

* * *

"Come on, Kaga-chan!" pleaded Kanata, now regretting her relatively destructive actions earlier.

"No," was the reply. "Let me study."

"But there's nothing to do!"

"Go bother somebody else."

"They can't see me!"

The ghost was ignored.

"And after I warned you that Matsuri-chan is planning something."

No response.

"Well, fine!" huffed Kanata. "I'll just go talk at your sisters."

Sulking, she drifted through the door in as ghostly a manner she could, though it was extremely difficult; apparently, having legs meant she couldn't float. "I can't even make cute little _hitodama_," mourned Kanata as she stalked, half annoyed, half lonely, and half bored.

Giggling at her own brain, she began to wonder, "Three halves…hm…maybe my solidness became the third one."

Soon, the incorporeal woman reached the kitchen, where Miki and Inori washed the dishes, chatting quietly, though rather amicably, about something that appeared interesting. However, Kanata remembered the Hiiragi matriarch's suspicion from the week before, and didn't dare try to get too close; staying in the same room had proven safe, but over a decade of hiding instinctualized her self-concealment.

The ghost needn't have worried about deciding whether to listen in or not, though, as the sudden, suspicious stop in the conversation did so for her.

* * *

After fleeing the kitchen and noting Tadao and Matsuri in the living room, which was far too close to the kitchen-and, thus, the over-perceptive dishwashers-for Kanata to be comfortable, she decided to visit Tsukasa. It had been a while, after all, since she'd gone by herself and not with a concerned Kagami.

The short-haired Hiiragi twin sat in the middle of a stuffed animal ring, smiling in an adorable way and simulating conversation amongst the group by wiggling the "talking" one's head. Tsukasa seemed the perfect picture of pure, childish cuteness and contentment.

Needless to say, her homework lay forgotten on her bed.

Sighing, Kanata walked over to the happily chattering girl in the floor. "You really should do it before Kaga-chan notices, Tsu-chan," said an unwary ghost. Honestly, even if the eldest two of the Hiiragi females had noticed something strange, it wasn't as if this one would, too.

"I know, Kona-chan, but this is so much fun!" Tsukasa answered, freezing Kanata in place above the yellow-bowed teenager. "Wait, when did Kona-chan-oh, I must be hearing things." Completely unaware of the blue-haired woman dropping to her knees right next to her, the youngest of the family laughed a bit sheepishly, a light blush gracing her cheeks as if she were embarrassed to be caught hallucinating her new friend by the various plushies around her, and said, "It didn't even sound like Kona-chan!"

* * *

"Kaga-chan! Kaga-chan! Emergency level one! Kaga-cha~n!" a very panicked Kanata screamed, shaking the very annoyed Kagami with as much force the tiny ghost could, which wasn't much at all.

"I _told_ you to go bother someone else!" hissed the twintailed _miko_, and, as if to emphasize her anger, a muscle above her right eye seemed to develop a spasm.

She didn't understand, Kanata knew. "But Kaga-chan, Miki-san and Inori-chan and Tsu-chan all noticed me!"

"That's impossible. We talked about this; Okaa-san just thought I was hiding something behind my bookshelf or something last week."

"But Tsu-chan talked to me!"

_That_, of course, caught Kagami's attention, and she came to the most obvious conclusion: "You're lying."

"No, I'm not!"

"So everybody in my family can suddenly see you?"

"Well, not _see_, per se…"

"Which is it, already?!" Though she had been relatively calm after her initial sharp reaction, any quickly-gathered patience had rather rapidly evaporated. "First you say that they're seeing you, and now you're saying they're not! Decide, or I'll ignore you for the next week!"

Had it been a prank or joke, Kanata would have given in right then; nothing was worth the boredom that would come from a silence of that length. "I was warning her to do her homework before you checked on her, even though I thought she wouldn't hear, and she responded! Though she thought I was Konata…"

"Understandable," muttered Kagami, though the sound was still loud enough for the very close ghost to make out. Louder, she continued, "She might have just had a dream-"

"While obviously wide awake and playing with her pandas and frogs?"

"…Sleeping with her eyes open…?"

The response was rather weak, and Kanata knew she had won, though the seriousness of the situation didn't let her enjoy it.

Still, first Miki, and now Inori and Tsukasa. "What's happening?" Kanata asked, her tone one usually found on a frightened primary school girl, which made sense, in a way; despite having existed in some form for nearly forty years, she still looked very young.

The worried look stayed on the ghost's face as she continued as she voiced her true concern. "Why is it happening only now?"

* * *

**AN: There! ****Kanata**** -FS01- is done! Actually, this was rather rushed for some reason, so if anybody could point out grammatical or spelling errors I missed, I would be infinitely thankful! Something to look out for is a misplaced "e." For some reason, I sometimes add one to certain words. A common example that had come up nearly every chapter so far in editing-and that I'm scared I missed here because I couldn't find it-is "on," which I type, half the time, as "one," instead. Any feedback or corrections would be helpful! **

**Just to remind everyone, the weeks of the 22nd and 29th are filler weeks; I will post short, in-universe chapters on those Fridays (the 25th and 2nd). **

**Thank you very much for your many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 9, Kagami -FS02-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Kagami glares a bunch._

_ 'Both Misao and Ayano fled at the sight of her, which basically forced the _miko_ to eat with her sister.'_

_'Even Miyuki flinched at the angry look on Kagami's face as she joined the group for lunch.'_


	10. Kagami -FS02-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 9

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_Still, first Miki, and now Inori and Tsukasa. "What's happening?" Kanata asked, her tone one usually found on a frightened primary school girl, which made sense, in a way; despite having existed in some form for nearly forty years, she still looked very young. _

_The worried look stayed on the ghost's face as she continued as she voiced her true concern. "Why is it happening only now?"_

Kagami -FS02-

The news that the rest of the Hiiragi family had begun to notice Kanata worried Kagami, though she didn't know whether it was due to the habit of keeping the blue-haired woman secret or the twintailed girl's the loneliness she would undoubtedly feel if the ghost disappeared (_The first one! Definitely the first one!_).

Of course, she didn't show any of this on her face. She was an older sister, after all, so it just wasn't proper to display anything but a detached and unconcerned persona in the face of trouble; that Kanata _still_ hadn't told her what a _tsundere_ didn't factor in.

_Nope, not at all._

Kagami, though, became more than a little annoyed at the constant muttering coming from the self-declared ghost. Not that this was unusual in the slightest, as it seemed Kanata had forgotten long ago how to think quietly, but the quick, panicked tone used by the blue-haired woman was surprisingly grating, especially since its topic hadn't changed for the past fourteen hours-presumably, of course, since, by three in the morning, Kagami had given up trying to drown her constant companion out, hit her harder than usual, and buried her ears under her pillow (_Now my right hand hurts, too!_).

In the morning, after the long-haired Hiiragi daughter slept through her alarm for the first time in over a year, Kanata wringed her hands almost constantly and fled at the slightest hint of anybody glancing in her direction; eventually, she simply elected to wait outside while Kagami dragged her twin out of her nest of pandas and frogs, with a very strange panda-frog hybrid presiding from the actual bed (_Why does she even have that thing, anyway?_).

The lingering hope in the twintailed _miko_'s heart that Kanata had been mistaken about the others' sudden spiritual perceptibility, briefly nurtured by her sister not noticing the ghost when the twins walked out the door, vanished as Tsukasa decided it was best to mention, as part of her apology to Kagami for sleeping in the middle of the floor, "I'm sorry, Onee-chan! I guess I thought I needed sleep after thinking I saw Kona-chan…"

_Dammit…_

* * *

Kagami's day only went downhill from there.

The mutterings of her companion spirit, which had ceased having anything to do with her previous favorite topic, eating, followed the twintailed girl through the commute to school and even the classes, a quite (_very_) distracting phenomenon for the haunted _miko_. Furthermore, Tsukasa had somehow gotten the tune Konata had been singing the day before stuck in her head, which only served to remind the slightly older twin that neither of the (_supposed_) mother-daughter duo had told her what a _tsundere_ was (_Not to mention that the stupid song is in _my_ head now, too…_).

And, despite all efforts, Kagami couldn't think of a good argument _against_ Kanata's ghosthood.

This led the lavender-haired teenager straight into a very bad mood, and her classmates noticed immediately. Both Misao and Ayano fled at the sight of her, which basically forced the _miko_ to eat with her sister. Of course, she normally wouldn't mind, except that she wanted to spend at least a little time with her long-time acquaintances (_and nowhere near that _otaku).

* * *

Nearly everybody in the sparsely packed classroom appeared scared for their life when the door revealed its opener's expression. Even Miyuki flinched at the angry look on Kagami's face as she joined the group for lunch, Kanata following invisibly with a visage showing longing (_I'll have to ask about that later_).

Then again, Konata simply waved joyfully, licked the chocolate from the large (_Head?_) end of the cornet, and hummed the same song as before, blissfully unaware of her incoming punishment.

_Whack!_

"Omph!"

_…What? Oh, there's food in her mouth._ "That's for not telling me what a _tsundere_ is yet," justified Kagami, a tone of indifference in her voice despite the bulging vein on her forehead.

Then again, this was (_Supposedly!_) Kanata's daughter; unsurprisingly, she responded as her mother would: in a teasing manner. "Kagami said she wasn't interested, yet she keeps asking. I wonder what it means…"

"Shut up and tell me before I rip your colon out through your mouth."

Tsukasa gasped, as Kagami only made such disturbing comments when she was having a bad day, but the other corporeal table members could not know that. However, before Konata could be warned not to continue, the youngest Hiiragi was drawn into a detailed explanation of why, exactly, the colon couldn't be orally removed without using sophisticated tools.

The long- and blue-haired girl addressed her long- and lavender-haired counterpart's statement by performing some sort of interpretive dance, moving efficiently and quickly enough that she managed to cartwheel over the teacher's resting body before anybody could tell her to stop (_Which isn't that surprising considering how quickly she beat that guy yesterday_).

"What the hell are you doing?"

More strange movements.

"…I will kick you if this is because I said, 'Shut up and tell me.'"

Konata froze, before frantically making gestures that might be considered apologetic had she not somehow ended up with a foot in Kagami's lap and her face upside down in Miyuki's chest.

_Thwhack!_

"Gah!"

At this point, Kagami had gotten angry enough that only their table's four and the teacher remained in the room, though the snores now rising from Kuroi-sensei's general direction revealed why she hadn't fled in fear. "Tell. Me. Now."

Tanned skin paled dramatically and, choco cornet forgotten, Konata adopted a strange expression that combined "scared," "thoughtful," and what Kagami thought was-and hoped was not-"turned on." She absently noted that Miyuki was still discussing colons with her sister (_How much information does she have stuck in that head of hers?_).

Finally, after a brief (_unnecessarily extended_) wait, Konata answered the question. "Remember what you said yesterday?" The glare she got in return didn't seem to phase the _otaku_ at all, but it was apparently meant to be a rhetorical question. "Even though you said, 'Answer the question!' angrily, your eyes just before were rather vulnerable-though your actual expression hid it well." The last part was tacked on in a low, muttering voice, as if the girl was rather put out with Kagami's superb poker face. "A basic definition of _tsundere_ is that you have a violent, abrasive shell surrounding a sweet, easily embarrassed core that you try to hide. You'll have to wait for the summer course to learn more-I can't just give out free lessons beforehand, you know."

Konata's tone went from serious, to imitating Kagami's voice nearly perfectly (_There's no way that's possible…_), to reaching something that Kagami wished were teasing but was, perhaps, the most seriously toned part of the entire statement.

Honestly, the twintailed girl had no idea what to attack first-the _tsundere_ definition, the _galge_ class (_It's just a joke, right?_), or the tiny teenager's head, so-

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Don't force people to enroll in such shady classes without their permission after saying strange things!"

-she just did all of the above.

* * *

"It doesn't make any sense," was the conversation starter after Kagami closed her final textbook (_At least wait for me to put them away!_).

After a few seconds of silence, the _miko_ responded, "Don't make ambiguous statements like that without explaining them, too."

Whatever it was bothered the girl-bound spirit immensely; a deep sadness played around Kanata's eyes, which, as they had all day, glanced around fearfully. "Why did your family see me-and only after nearly fourteen years-while my own daughter can't? For…whoever she worships with that thing around her neck's sake, I shoved her out my-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" a rather flushed Kagami interrupted. "I-is that really the way to talk about your own daughter?"

"You only stutter when you're embarrassed, Kaga-chan," came a halfhearted and obviously automatic reply that concerned its target more than it annoyed her; the ghost _never_ gave up on a teasing opportunity. She sighed when there was no response (_She _wants_ me to respond…_). "It's…I guess I regret not being there for her…"

Realizing that there were still textbooks to pack, Kagami started on that task (_definately not to avoid her eyes_). "I'm sure your husband has taken good care of her," was the nonchalant statement from the twintailed girl.

She noticed her mistake during a short pause in which she could practically hear the slightly smug look pulling itself onto Kanata's face. However, when she spoke, an underlying tone of stress still made itself heard. "So you admit that I'm real?"

Wincing, Kagami decided to backpedal a little. "How'd you reach that conclusion?"

"You said, 'your husband.'"

"No, I said, 'her father.'"

"No, you didn't, and how do you explain my concern?"

"You're a good person?" Despite all of her efforts, Kagami's counter still sounded a little like a question; her adversary's smug look ever-so-slightly intensified before it vanished altogether, wholly replaced by the previous anxious one.

"I just don't understand it," she said, hopelessness in her voice again as if the verbal sparring match had not occurred.

Silence reigned in the bedroom as Kagami finished storing her books; she used these seconds to come up with her answer. Finally, she said, "You've been floating around here for most of my life. It's no surprise that somebody noticed you."

"I don't float," Kanata said immediately and arrogantly, as if moving like other ghosts was beneath her. Kagami, though she wouldn't admit it out loud, found herself rather pleased that the worry and sadness from before was mostly faded from her obvious topic change. "I am a respectable spirit who uses her legs."

"Which means you can't float."

"I can too."

"Then get that novel for me."

"I am not your servant!" the royalty-impersonating woman continued. "That is your place! Fetch me that book, you-"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"I'm not your servant either, stupid gho-imaginary friend."

Kanata's face showed glee at Kagami's slip of the tongue (_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_), but it, too, vanished. This time, however, surprise took its place. "That…that can't be right…" she muttered, staring at her hands as if they hadn't been a part of her body for decades.

"What?" Kagami questioned, doing her best to keep her concern from tainting her voice.

"Tingly."

One word was all it took for the twintailed _miko_ to understand. The unusual pair had discussed the strange "energy" that Kanata claimed allowed her to spend a small section of time away from her worldly tether, Kagami. At one point, Kanata had postponed one of her scheduled visits to her family's house, normally taken every three weeks, and the "energy" had built up over the extra week. The resulting feeling had been described as "tingly," too.

For whatever reason, in less than two weeks, the ghost went from having to practically hug Kagami to not lose "energy" to having more than she ever needed.

"What is happening?" Kanata asked for the second night in a row. No answer came.

* * *

**AN: Kagami -FS02-: complete! **

**Well, these last couple of chapters have highlighted a major flaw in my writing style for this 'fic. So far, I basically have most of the major events thought out and written in my head, but nothing that happens between them, the events leading up to them, or the order in which they happen. So, while I have a general idea of where this is going, I still have to figure out how to get there…and I have no ****GPS****. **

**Anyway, thank you so much for the many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 10, Konata -FS02-:**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Kagami is missing!_

_'"Tsukasa," said Konata in the most serious voice she could muster, "I'm going to find Kagami. If I don't come back, tell my father that he's the most despicable type of person for me." _I don't take kindly to people messing with my game._'_


	11. Konata -FS02-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 10

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, nothing directly relevant to this chapter happened!_

Konata -FS02-

"Izumi. Izumi?"

Konata waited just outside the classroom, ready to pounce once Kuroi-sensei finished her near-ritualistic lines. Even though she was just as early as the Hiiragis-they had arrived on the same train, after all-the blue-haired girl hid out in a bathroom until her homeroom teacher would be taking attendance.

"I guess she's late today," came the expected words, laced with a hint of annoyance and expectance.

Kuroi Nanako's voice gets slightly louder, as if she has turned toward the door. _Better not keep her waiting, then!_

Slamming the sliding door open as hard and loud as her tiny body could, Konata cried out, "Wait, Sensei! I'm here!"

There was no surprise on the blonde woman's face as she said, in a deadpan voice, "What's your excuse today, Izumi?"

_If I lie and say my father kept me at home, Tsukasa might call me out on it…alright, I've got it!_ "Well, today is normally a religious holiday for me and Otou-san," Konata explained, "but he really wanted me to go to school. We had this huge argument about it-you can ask him!-and he only convinced me to come if I was able to do my usual religious rituals in an isolated corner somewhere."

"Is that so?" Kuroi-sensei said with amusement. "And Soujirou-kun would back this up?"

_He better. _"Of course!"

"…Fine. Take your seat. I'll check with your father later."

_Ha! Haruhiism 1, high school 0!_

* * *

_Alright, I have a plan for today's lunch, and nobody's going to stop me! _thought Konata with a rather maniacal-sounding inner voice. _It may go straight to hell as soon as she walks into the room, but her image issues need addressing eventually, so I might as well try to start now._

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Kagami echoed through Konata's head. _You, of all people, shouldn't be giving advice on 'image issues,' Shorty._

_Hmph._ A pause, then the thoughts continued._ At least I haven't given that particular weakness away, yet. I'm not sure how I'd react if-no, that's not right. We'd just get into some sort of weight-height insult argument or something. And it took Inner Tsundere-chan to point it out to me. _

"Izumi, are you paying attention?"

_Urk! Hm, how to do this…wait! I have the perfect response! _"No. I was going to surprise you, but I'm trying to find you a boyfr-"

_Thud!_

"Ow!"

"Pay attention, or I'll use my _special_ textbook next time."

"Wasn't this kind of thing outlawed or something?" Konata's protests were ignored.

* * *

"Hey, Tsukasa," the blue-haired girl, having gotten over her teacher's assault a few minutes prior to lunch, said, "Where's Kagami?"

"Onee-chan? Probably with Misa-chan in her classroom," answered Tsukasa, innocently ignorant of the whole host of plans and ideas this inconvenienced. "She said she hadn't spent any time with them this week."

A few seconds of silence passed at the table. _Other friends make sense, but this is…they're obviously something like…like…'Childhood Friends.' _The blue-haired _otaku_ shuttered. _This is bad. This is very, very bad. _

_Time for a rescue mission, though I might need help…_

"Tsukasa," said Konata in the most serious voice she could muster, "I'm going to find Kagami. If I don't come back, tell my father that he's the most despicable type of person for me." _I don't take kindly to people messing with my game._

"Eh?" was the intelligible response from Tsukasa and Miyuki.

Standing, the shortest high schooler for miles around continued solemnly, "This is a dangerous rescue mission, and I don't expect to come back in one piece, nor for you to come with me. In the likely event that I don't, Tsukasa, tell your twin that I'm leaving her my _yuri_."

"Eh?" she said again, but Miyuki's confusion cleared.

"I understand," she said, standing as well. "If this task is as dangerous as you believe, we cannot allow you to continue alone, Izumi-san."

_I feel sort of bad manipulating them like-wait, is that a glint of humor in her eyes? Who knew? And, with Miyuki-san's assistance, Tsukasa seems on board as well!_ "Call me, 'Sergeant,' Private Miyuki-san, Private Tsukasa!"

"Yes, Sergeant!" replied the pink-haired girl, apparently very into the situation.

"Y-yes, Sergeant Kona-chan!" Tsukasa yelled out, eyes squeezed shut and bow erect.

_This is the most adorable army of all time! There's no way we can lose!_

"Oi, Izumi, what are you doing?"

"That's, 'Sergeant,' Kuroi-sensei!" Konata followed this foolish declaration with the wise decision to flee, her "army" behind her.

Sighing, Kuroi Nanako muttered, exasperated, "That girl's going to be the death of me."

Konata, who had stopped her newly-formed posse right outside the door, rushed back in, grabbed her choco cornet, ducked the thrown chalkboard eraser, and rushed out. "Come, my _Moe_-army! We have a _tsundere_ to rescue!" Moe_-army…yes, that is what we are. With Miyuki's undefeatable _moe_ characteristics, Tsukasa's forgetful cuteness, Kagami's _tsundere_, and my knowledge, we can rule the world! _

Holding her choco cornet out and pointing it down the hallway, she cried, "March!" and led Tsukasa and Miyuki in the indicated direction, the odd group drawing even more gazes than normal as they went.

* * *

By the time they reached Kagami's classroom five minutes later, even Tsukasa had gotten over any embarrassment from marching about as if they owned the school. This was not quite an accident, though, as Konata had passed Kagami's classroom three times before she finally decided it was time to stop. _It's a bit fun doing this. Maybe I _should_ try for world domination by way of _moe_…_

Whispering, Konata began her pep-talk/speech. "Alright, Privates, we've reached the enemy layer. In a few seconds, we'll be on the offensive for the first time. I only have one piece of advice for you." She paused for a few seconds, licking the chocolate that had accidentally been squeezed out of her cornet as she tried to think of some sort of good-sounding phrase to say. Finishing with a long lick along the big end's rim, she continued, "Use your greatest assets."

Tsukasa, who didn't notice the pointed glance "Sergeant" gave Miyuki's "assets," gained what was, perhaps, the most adorable look of thoughtfulness and determination Konata had ever seen. On the other hand, the one on the receiving end of the blue-hair girl's slightly lusty leer blushed in embarrassment.

_Alright! Here we go!_

Spinning around suddenly, Konata swung her foot in a curved kick. Her toes caught the handle of the sliding door and slammed it open, before returning to a perfect standing position, hands on her hips and nothing missing from her cornet. _Ten out of ten! Perfect score!_

This classroom, a mirror image of Konata's own except with the door near the back rather than the front, also imitated its cousin in the unpopularity associated with eating anywhere else other than the cafeteria-even the teacher was missing. There were only three inhabitants of the room: Kagami, a girl with short brown hair, and a girl with long orange hair. While the latter two appeared astonished by the sudden entrance, the twintailed Hiiragi twin simply said, "If you damage school property, your father will ground you."

_Probably not, but that's not the point of this visit. Wait, she's not surprised? How did she know we were here?_ Despite these thoughts, Konata marched in, cornet held like a European rapier ready for a fencing match, followed by her two "Privates," who stood at attention behind her to either side.

"Eh? Tsukasa, what are you doing?" asked Kagami with a hint of confusion and annoyance.

The short-haired twin only emitted an, "Eep!" but Miyuki smiled cheerfully, without any of the remorsefulness Konata-and, likely, Kagami-expected from her. "I apologize, Kagami-san, but it appears we were drafted into some sort of military."

Though Kagami said nothing in response, her face implied she was thinking something like, "I expected this kind of thing from Konata, but not Miyuki-san!"

Fed up with the short conversation and wanting to make the most of the short lunch period, Konata interrupted before the group could get sidetracked any more. "We're here to rescue Kagami from the evil clutches of tyranny!" she declared, which only caused Orange to become even more confused than she already was, Kagami to facepalm, and Brown to shoot out of her seat.

Kagami, of course, deadpanned, "Don't go around calling people you don't know, 'evil.'"

"Over my dead body!" Brown declared, ignoring the one she was supposed to be protecting and pointing one finger directly between Konata's eyes.

What she didn't know, of course, was that Konata had already discovered one of her weaknesses-_Analyzing: lunch box filled with various cylindrical containers, ice cream stains on uniform, breath smells like vanilla even from here…_-and had the perfect weapon to combat such a character.

"Tsukasa, go!" yelled Konata, swinging her cornet arm in a windmill-like motion, pointing directly at Brown's stomach and miraculously not losing any chocolate, though she did need to rather hastily lick at it anyway.

"Huh? Imouto can't do anything to me," the girl in front of her said with a superior smirk.

She was wrong.

"Misa-chan!" Tsukasa yelled, apparently caught in the flow enough to know to be dramatic.

"What, Imouto? I have to protect Hiiragi from this-"

"I'll make you vanilla ice cream cake if you don't interfere!"

_As expected of Tsukasa!_ Konata cheered mentally; she'd discovered the younger Hiiragi twin's baking hobby sometime in the week before. _That 'use your greatest assets' thing wasn't actually that impressive, but it apparently got through to her! Though it's troubling that Tsukasa and Brown know each other well enough for her to use, 'Imouto'…_

"Sorry, Hiiragi!" the subject of Konata's jealousy exclaimed loudly. "This is an offer I just can't refuse!"

"Wa-wait! Don't just abandon me like this!" Kagami cried, before turning to Orange, opening her mouth to say something, and ultimately closing it upon realizing that her other friend wouldn't be much help-she was smiling in a way reminiscent of a confused Tsukasa. This, in all honestly, wasn't that much different from Tsukasa's facial expression at the moment-Brown was talking her ears off, supposedly about the cake she'd been promised.

"There's no resisting now, Kagami!" Konata triumphantly declared. "Miyuki, go!"

Just like Tsukasa before her, Miyuki rushed forward. "Yes, Sergeant!" With a high dose of embarrassment and but a hint of hesitation, the surprisingly swift girl grabbed her target and used her "assets" in the only way she could think of in the situation: imprisoning the twintailed _miko_, face pointing outward and a large lump on either side of her head.

Brown, Tsukasa, Orange, and Kagami were all too shocked to speak, but Konata strode over to her new prisoner. _She doesn't seem uncomfortable in there at all, only embarrassed. Are you enjoying that, Kagami?_

Yes, though she hides it well. The only hint she's hiding anything in the first place is the slightly more closed-off nature of her expression. However, she also seems a little more relaxed than normal. 

_Thanks, Text Box-chan! Wait, you didn't pick up on this before…I underestimated you, Kagami, to keep such a thing hidden from Text Box-chan for all this time._

"Any last words, Kagami?" Konata asked in a voice even she would admit was smug.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a 'rescue mission'?" was the answer.

"Technicalities," Konata dismissed, before pointing her cornet at Kagami again. "All that matters is that you're under _my_ leadership now! You have to do everything I-"

Most of the time, this would be the point where Kagami hit Konata in the head, but her hands were still held by her captor. Instead, she retaliated by doing the only thing she could.

She took a bite from Konata's cornet.

Over the next second, the blue-haired girl stared at the clean, slightly damp bite in her beloved lunch snack, but, in her head, chaos broke out.

_Haruhi's perky breasts, that's an indirect kiss! An indirect kiss! That part needs to be separated and put into an airtight evidence bag and liquefied and stored in a test tube or something so I can have a drop of Kagami every day and-what has my father done to me?! Even if I couldn't see my own Scores, this is a pretty obvious sign…alright, calm down, calm down. Breathe in, breathe out, in, out, in-_

The Kagami-voice interrupted, _We're in your head, you idiot. You don't need to breathe._

_Don't mess with what works! Calm…calm…calm…in…out…alright. What to do…got it! I'll return it!_

_The saliva?_

_No, Inner Tsundere-chan, not the saliva. That would be a waste!_

Smirking, Konata withdrew her cornet, and said, "Silly Kagami. Do you think I'd be affected by something that little?" _Well, I was, but, meh, technicalities. _And, to prove her point, Konata's teeth closed around a spot on the cornet that included about a fifth of Kagami's bite mark. _I returned the indirect kiss! Not that she notices…_

Indeed, the _tsundere_ seemed rather put out with the situation-She seems both disappointed that her only course of action didn't work and angry at the situation in general. She opens her mouth to say something, when:

_Alert! Incoming attack, 289o!_

Miyuki, who could see over the currently level heads of Konata and Kagami, said, "Eep!" and stepped back, getting herself out of harm's way and freeing Kagami at the same time.

"Betrayal!" Brown yelled, apparently not noticing the fact that she was also putting Kagami in jeopardy.

Konata, however, knew this, and her interface changed, this time to the first-person combat screen, her personal favorite. The text box reduced itself to the bottom left hand corner, the alert box expanded and became her health bar, and the Score box minimized itself to a button attached to the text box. _Luckily, the controls are the same across the board, so…_

_Hold X, L, \/, release X_

Konata grabbed Kagami and twisted to the left, pulling the twintailed girl along with her in the dodge. Without anybody at the receiving end of her charge, Brown crashed headfirst into the wall.

Then, she stood up as if nothing happened. _What in the name of Haruhi's hairstyle is her skull made of?!_

"There's no way I'm letting you take Hiiragi!" the seemingly indestructible teenager yelled in defiance, before charging again.

_This time, Kagami isn't in the line of attack, so I don't have to dodge. I'll show you not to mess with my-_

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Gah! Hiiragi, what the hell?"

"Misao, pay attention!" an angry Kagami growled, towering over the two head-nursing teenagers. "You nearly ran _me_ over, and you're supposed to be helping! And you," she continued, turning to Konata, "stop using my sister and Miyuki-san for your nefarious needs and take them back to your classroom!"

"Never!" Konata cried, standing suddenly in a way quite similar to, though she would never admit it, Misao. "The _moe_-army never surrenders!"

_Brrrring!_

"…"

"Go before I hit you again."

"…Fine! Come on, Privates! We must retreat for now, but we'll know to disable the bell first next time! March!"

And so, interface back to normal, Konata led her two classmates back, still in military style, barking orders the entire way and ignoring Kagami's cry of, "Don't mess with school property just to avoid classes!"

Somehow, despite never splitting the group, Tsukasa and Miyuki were on time, while Konata was, once again, late.

* * *

It was nearing three in the morning when Konata finally turned off the computer. She turned toward the only remnant she had from lunch, a crescent-shaped piece that looked like somebody had taken a huge bite out of it, and, reverently, put it into her mouth.

_So good~!_ she thought, chewing slowly the piece Kagami's mouth had touched. _This is the best thing I've ever tasted!_

* * *

**AN: On that ever-so-slightly creepy note, thus ends Konata -FS02-, a transition chapter between last one and next one. I _think_ this takes place on a Thursday, but I'm not quite sure. Anyway, this is the longest chapter so far, though I think it loses in actual individual scene length to one of the earlier Kagami chapters. **

**I am aware that the ending of last chapter was probably confusing. If you were confused by it at all, don't worry. It has nothing to do with any maniacal plans. I have no maniacal plans. None at all. **

**Reminder: Update on Friday, then filler weeks for the next two weeks. On the 25th and 2nd, look for new chapters! They'll be marked with -Fi01- and -Fi02-, respectively, denoting them as -Filler-. After that, the -FS- story arc will continue on the Tues-Fri schedule. **

**Thank you very much for the many reviews, comments, favorites, and follows thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 11, ****Kanata**** -FS02-!**

_Next time, in Of Galge and imaginary Friends, Friday comes!_

_'"Sorry, Misao, I promised Tsukasa that I'd eat with her on Fridays."_

_"Even after what that squirt had her do?"_

Whack!

_"Gah!"_

_Kagami said nothing else, though Kanata couldn't help but comment, "Kaga-chan's so ruthless!"'_


	12. Kanata -FS02-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 11

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_It was nearing three in the morning when Konata finally turned off the computer. She turned toward the only remnant she had from lunch, a crescent-shaped piece that looked like somebody had taken a huge bite out of it, and, reverently, put it into her mouth. _

So good~!_ she thought, chewing slowly the piece Kagami's mouth had touched. _This is the best thing I've ever tasted!

Kanata -FS02-

"Why're you so happy?" was the greeting Kagami gave Konata at the train station on Friday morning.

Giggling, Kanata watched as her rather dazed daughter snapped back to reality, tripped over her own feet, and accidentally headbutted the twintailed _miko_, who emitted an "oomph" before collapsing to the ground. The incorporeal woman, despite being dead and unable to communicate directly with anybody but Kagami, knew full well the origin of Konata's euphoria; the look that passed over her face when she chewed on the edge of Kagami's bite mark was one of pure bliss.

"Just had a good night," answered the blue-haired girl, voice muffled by her current pillow. "Kagami, your bones are hard."

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Get off of me!"

"But it's so comfortable down here."

"Not for me! And didn't you just say that my bones are hard?"

Kanata's giggling intensified as she watched her daughter reluctantly rise from her position on the older twin, who glared at her unintentional assailant. Unfortunately for the _tsundere_'s efforts to perfect her death glare, Konata's thoughts seemed elsewhere and didn't notice it.

Thusly, with Konata likely reliving her indirect kiss with Kagami and Tsukasa staring blankly into the distance, the blue-haired ghost was left with nothing to do. Kanata hated boredom at the best of times.

And it certainly _wasn't _the best of times.

Even more quickly than normal, likely due to the _tingling_ constantly coursing through her, the _miko_-bound spirit became quite antsy. She felt like _doing_ something, not just fidgeting and waiting quietly for the train. It was under these conditions that she made a rash decision.

Kagami definitely did not expect to be shoved.

Thoroughly shocked, she couldn't resist falling on top of Konata. Tsukasa, jolted by the sudden cries of surprise from her companions, squeaked, "Eep!" and jumped away, eyes squeezed shut and arms protecting her face.

Konata said something intelligible first. "So Kagami wanted a pillow instead of being one?"

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

How she had done so was a mystery to Kanata, but, somehow, the twintailed _miko_ had managed to stand while hitting both of the Izumi women. "Like hell I would!" she responded, before looking away.

Used to listening for Kagami's quiet voice, only Kanata was able to hear her daughter's muttered words. "So scary, Kagami! Though, if I'm right, then your _deredere _side will be even cuter…" she softly said, trailing off as her speech once again became thoughts.

It looked as if nothing else would come from Kanata's actions, but an unexpected ally decided to help. "Hey, Kona-chan," Tsukasa began, "why did you want me to tell you father that?"

"Hm? Oh, that he's the most despicable type of person?"

At this, Kagami turned toward Konata, a hint of curiosity in her one open eye, though she was obviously trying to hide its intensity. "Do you not get along with your father?" she asked anyway.

"Oh, we get along splendidly." Kanata let out a breath that she hadn't realized she held in the first place-or that she could breathe at all, actually. "He's just a pervert."

This didn't surprise Kanata at all. "Oh, Sou-kun…"

"So, what," Kagami continued to question, her misplaced anger at Konata overridden by curiosity, "he peeks at your next door neighbor? Drills holes in the barrier between the male and female sides of public baths?"

"No, not like that," answered the blue-haired teenager. "But I usually have to chain him to the wall in the basement under threat of Endless Eight whenever I bathe, and he has a disturbing trend of going down the _loli_ routes in our H-games."

"…What, exactly, has Sou-kun been letting you do?" Kanata wondered.

Kagami apparently thought the same, but latched on to what was, probably, the more important problem. "He does those kinds of things to his _daughter_?"

"It's because I look like Okaa-san," was the reply. "She died when I was young, so it's been a while since he's seen her. Even then, most of that was in the hospital."

Kanata felt her heart break at her daughter's sad tone of voice, and wanted nothing more than to hug and comfort Konata. Just like in her previous visits, however, the ghost held herself back; even if she already knew she wouldn't be able to touch the sad, tearless girl, Kanata doubted she'd be able to handle trying and failing, anyway.

Luckily, though, the conversation moved to happier topics after this, and the spirit's thoughts returned to her daughter's earlier actions and their relation to her twintailed tether.

* * *

"You seem happy today, too," quietly commented Kagami in an empty part of the school before class.

"All mothers are happy when this kind of thing happens to their daughter," Kanata cheerfully replied while poking through a snoozing student's brain.

"…What kind of nonsense are you sputtering?"

The ghost instantly latched on to the unsaid message. "So you admit that I'm real?"

"Not the point."

"It is now~!"

"If you don't wipe that smug look off your face, I'll hit you again. _Hard_."

Kagami's normal hits hurt, but _hard_ hits were much, much worse. Therefore, Kanata backpedaled very quickly. "No, no, there's no need for that."

"Whatever. I have a quiz in class, so go haunt a bathroom or something."

"You're so cold, sometimes, Kaga-chan."

Said girl raised her fist about a centimeter, which was enough of a sign for Kanata to flee through the walls as quickly as possible. However, that left the ghost with a lot of time on her hands and nothing to do with it.

"Who knows what I'll do if I get bored again," she mused out loud, not that the thinning crowd of high schoolers could hear her. "Maybe I'll go to Konata's classroom. It might be a good change of pace."

* * *

"Nevermind."

There honestly was nothing for the spirit to do, even in the different class. Less, even, as she couldn't interact with anybody. The students did exactly what they did in Kagami's classroom; several slept, others, like Tsukasa, spaced out, a few actually took notes, Konata scribbled furiously-

"Wait, what?" This was the strange occurrence the spirit was waiting for; her daughter, she knew from the few grades she saw, rarely took her studies seriously. Interest peaked, Kanata muttered, "Let's see what you are up too, hm?" and leaned over the girl's shoulder, incidentally putting her ear close enough to catch the few thoughts that made it past Konata's lips.

"…dieting too much…" she whispered, connecting a newly-written phrase, "pronounced bones," to "self-confidence" on the chaotic, interconnecting web that kind of resembled Tsukasa's panda-frog doll.

Kanata broke into unheard giggles at the title of the "graph," crammed in the upper right corner: "Kagami Paths."

"…nurse back to health…"

"Oh, Konata," the giggling ghost managed to say. "You're taking this too seriously."

"…try to prevent…"

"At least you realize that you should do something to prevent Kaga-chan from getting sick."

The rest of the class passed in this manner, with Konata muttering a few words of something and Kanata making a comment, before she decided to return to Kagami's side. Her quiz was probably done, after all, and even this new pastime was bound to become boring eventually.

* * *

Lunch time arrived, and most of the classroom evacuated as quickly as possible, leaving, once again, Kagami, Misao, Ayano, and the invisible Kanata by themselves. However, their numbers would soon be cut.

"But Hiiragi-"

"Sorry, Misao, I promised Tsukasa that I'd eat with her on Fridays."

"Even after what that squirt had her do?"

_Whack!_

"Gah!"

Kagami said nothing else while she packed up, but Kanata couldn't help but comment, "Kaga-chan's so ruthless!" She promptly shut up at the subtle, intense glare she received in response.

* * *

"Hi, Onee-chan!" Tsukasa cheerfully called out as soon as her sister stepped through her classroom door.

Kagami responded with, "Yo," before taking her seat across from Konata at the group's designated desk.

"Hello, Kagami-san," Miyuki greeted, preempting Konata, who was licking the leaking chocolate from her cornet.

Pouting slightly, she whined, "Hey, I was supposed to go first!"

Kanata giggled while Kagami rubbed the bridge of her nose, probably thinking something along the lines of, "Is she arguing about who greets me first, of all things?"

However, the childish complaints of Konata were apparently taken very seriously by the wayward Miyuki. "Yes, Sergeant! I apologize for my inappropriate actions."

"Are you still doing that?" interjected Kagami, interrupting what could have become a rather humorous conversation. Kanata pouted.

Miyuki opened her mouth, but Konata spoke first anyway. "Of course she is! She's an important part of the _moe_-army! Weaponized _moe_ in humanoid form!"

"Don't say that kind of thing so enthusiastically, H-game-san."

"That's a rather strange nickname, Kagami. Do you want me to give you one, too?"

"If you do, I'll squeeze all of your cornet's chocolate into your hair."

"So mean, Kagami!" Nevertheless, Konata began to eat the only lunch she had more quickly.

About a minute passed in silence as the four high school students ate, but such things rarely last long, especially when Kanata involved herself. "Boo!" she yelled suddenly, startling Kagami and causing her to jump, hit her knees on the table, and opened the _miko_'s defenses long enough for Konata to perform one of the most complicated maneuvers her mother had ever seen, under guise of herself being startled. Several backflips, spins, and leaps later, the blue-haired girl ended up on top of her twintailed target.

"However you ended up here," she growled, "get up before I give you a concussion."

"But it's so comforta-" _Whack!_ "Ow!"

"I told you."

A slow, reluctant, and grumble-filled journey later, and a dejected Konata was, once again, in her seat. Silence was not to be, though, as Tsukasa asked a question that, in all honesty, Kanata had wondered about, as well.

"Is your father really that bad, Kona-chan?"

Though Miyuki hadn't been present at the train station earlier in the day, she'd heard Konata's request to Tsukasa before their Kagami recovery mission. Therefore, she wasn't quite as lost as she otherwise might be, but apparently decided to not involve herself in this discussion and remained silent.

Konata shrugged. "We both like games, anime, manga, and the like, but I think Okaa-san was the only person who could really hold him back-you know, she was legal _and_ a _loli_, as well as the only woman who could put up with him for any length of time. He tries to make do with his H-games, but…"

"Oh, Sou-kun," Kanata sighed from her spot behind her daughter.

"Honestly, I don't know what Okaa-san saw in him."

It was a simple statement, a continuation of her words from before, but it was said in such a sad voice that any restraint Kanata had displayed before vanished. She stretched her arms around her daughter from behind and hugged, fully expecting to simply pass through the small form and suffer the devastation Kanata knew that, despite logic, would come-

-and, then, her arms met resistance.

* * *

**AN: By Haruhi, I'm late! Late! It's done, but it's late! And I'm even later because FFN was being stubborn! I'm so, so sorry!**

**Freakin' "Error Type 2"…all the solutions were only for posting a chapter, not uploading a document with the Doc Manager…**

**Reminder: Filler next week and the week after. See last chapter's author's note for details. **

**Oh, I'm forgetting something…what was it…oh, yes, I remember. Cliffhanger! MUAHAHAHAHA! **

**Ahem.**

**Thank you so much for all of the review, comments, favorites, and follows so far! Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, we have a filler chapter, so no preview for you! I don't want to give anything away!**


	13. Kanata and Tsukasa -Fi01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

-Filler 01-

Kanata and Tsukasa

Kanata's eyes, before they closed for the last time, took in her daughter's quiet and mystified form, so different from her usual active self.

For a moment, she felt like she was floating. _Is this what it feels like to die? This isn't too bad. _

Then, gravity took hold of her again, and it was like she was standing, which was strange, because she hadn't stood in months.

She opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. A living room she appeared in, it seemed, with comfortable-looking furniture and a smallish television on a stand. Nearby, the fading sound of footsteps echoed before a door closed; somebody had left the house Kanata suddenly found herself in.

And, most importantly, a very young girl, lavender hair in longish pigtails and tears in her blueish purple eyes, stared up at her. The toddler seemed to be in utter distress over something, as she didn't react to Kanata's unexpected appearance otherwise and resumed the wailing she had presumably preoccupied herself with before.

Despite her appearance as a primary school student, Kanata was a good mother; these instincts took over at this point, shoving all thoughts of the strange circumstances from the woman's mind as she knelt before the sobbing child and hugged her.

Murmuring nonsense in a calming tone had always helped Konata, so that's what the recently deceased-probably?-mother did. Sure enough, the child began to calm down.

"Can you tell me what's the matter?" Kanata asked of the girl, who, though larger than her own daughter, seemed a little younger.

Gulping and looking tired, she answered, "Tsu-chan's sick. Mama took Tsu-chan away."

_So her mother took "Tsu-chan" to the doctor. _"What about your Otou-san?"

"Papa sick too. So is Matsu-nee-chan."

_Is her entire family sick? _"Who is watching you?"

"Inori-ane-chan."

"Can you take me to her?"

It was rather shocking to discover that only the toddler Kanata appeared beside could see the apparently invisible woman, but that didn't stop her from trying to cheer the young girl up; at least, it distracted her from her own missing daughter. For several hours, Kanata played with the girl Inori called Kagami, before, finally, the rest of the family returned.

None of them could see Kanata, either.

Except Tsukasa.

* * *

_Two years later…_

The twins, as the only two people in the world who could see Kanata, spent most of their time playing with her; they knew to keep their friend a secret from their family, and grew to be quite good at it.

Tsukasa, though she remembered exactly what Kanata looked like, had slowly but surely stopped seeing her. She thought it was because she was bored of pretending the imaginary friend was real, but Kagami kept asking her to come play with "them," and the short-haired sister followed every time. However…

"Tsukasa!" Kagami called out from their shared bedroom's doorway, hand holding thin air. "Come play hide and seek with me and Kana-chan!"

Unfortunately, Tsukasa couldn't pretend she could see the imaginary friend if _this_ was today's game, so, rather reluctantly, as her sister truly seemed happy when they played with "Kana-chan," the ever-so-slightly younger twin said, "Onee-chan…I don't think we should keep playing with an imaginary friend."

This seemed to shock the twintailed Hiiragi, who glanced back at "Kana-chan" in alarm. "C-can Tsukasa not see Kana-chan anymore?" she asked, a look of sadness in her eyes.

"Ah…" escaped the mouth of Tsukasa, but, by then, Kagami had already run away.

* * *

_Three more years later…_

This wasn't quickly forgotten by either of the twins, but it _was_ forgotten. In fact, they forgot that Tsukasa had ever seen Kanata at all, and were as close as ever by the time they were seven.

Kanata, though, remembered; she'd lost one of her only remaining friends, while her other began to question her existence on a daily basis. Meanwhile, experimentation while Kagami slept proved she could only ever leave the long-haired twin's side every three weeks at the earliest, but only had a little time before being snapped back, though this period could be increased if a few more days were waited before leaving.

Not that it mattered, since the worried, ghostly mother wanted to visit her spiritually unperceptive daughter as often as possible.

At the moment, though, the Hiiragi twins were spending their last night sleeping in the same room full time. Adorableness poured from the seven-year-olds' forms; Tsukasa wrapped herself around her sister as if she were a security blanket, while Kagami looked like she, too, was taking comfort from the situation, but, mirroring her normal personality, seemed rather reluctant to show it, even in her sleep.

The ghost thought this quite hilarious, but fought back her giggles, as she didn't want to wake them up.

Slowly stroking Kagami's hair, Kanata remembered a time when she could do the same to the other twin and wondered, not for the first time, if she could still. She'd tried when Tsukasa was awake, of course, and failed miserably. Despite the logic that it wouldn't matter if she were asleep, the ghost tried to copy on Tsukasa the ministrations she was performing on Kagami.

And it worked.

She sat there, basking in the regained ability to touch her lost friend, for hours, stroking the heads of both girls until, around five in the morning, her touches woke Tsukasa far earlier than usual and Kanata's hand slipped through the girl's head once again.

Sighing, watching as the short-haired twin blinked around confusedly before, ultimately, falling back into slumber, Kanata continued slowly petting her last true connection to the physical world.

* * *

_Present day…_

"You really should do it before Kaga-chan notices, Tsu-chan."

Hearing the voice, seeing a familiar bright blue, and assuming that it was talking about the unfinished homework, Tsukasa answered, "I know, Kona-chan, but this is so much fun! Wait, when did Kona-chan-" she trailed off while looking up.

There was nobody there.

Thinking about it, though, Konata didn't call her "Tsu-chan" or Kagami "Kaga-chan," so it couldn't have been the blue-haired girl.

"Oh, I must be hearing things," she said, embarrassed despite there being nobody around to see. "It didn't even sound like Kona-chan!" That voice did seem familiar, though…

* * *

**AN: First filler: done!**

**Nothing much to say. Reviews on last chapter will be addressed somewhere in the next two _story_ chapters, ignoring next week's filler, because it'll be important then. **

**Thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, favorites, and follows thus far! There's no preview this week, though, because I don't want to spoil a filler chapter. **


	14. Miki -Fi02-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

-Filler 02-

_A really long time ago in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"I see," repeated Miki. She rose and walked toward the door, and there were sounds suspiciously similar to several people scrambling away. Once she was there, though, she turned_ _back to the room's corporeal occupant. "You know, if you have any other problems, you can tell me or your father, right?" _

_Though she preferred to avoid being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Kagami nonetheless answered with a smile, "Yeah, I know."_

_The smile was returned, and, with one last look-over of __Kanata__'s general area, Miki left._ _Soon, the sound of her telling off Matsuri, Inori (the eldest sister), and Tadao (the father) could be heard from elsewhere in the house._

Miki

Hiiragi Miki's eyes opened slowly when her ears picked up the sounds of her two eldest daughters trying to quietly sneak to the scheduled meeting. In all honesty, they were doing a rather decent job-the training she had given the two since they individually turned eighteen apparently yielded some results-but the long-haired mother simply had more _experience_, not to mention that _reconnaissance_ was her specialty.

The day's earlier events, particularly those revolving around Kagami, worried Miki more than she would normally admit to anyone. Who in their right mind would try to tell somebody what she suspected, or, for that matter, suspect it in the first place? Normally, it would be a crazy enough concept to have her family thrown into an institution, though whether it would be of the mental health or scientific research observation type, she didn't know, and that alone was enough to keep most of the Hiiragi women's work secret from her husband, an arrangement suited to all parties.

Only when Matsuri and Inori finally arrived through the door directly behind their mother's armchair did she speak. "You're late."

The undignified snort identified the footsteps to the left as Matsuri before she even started to speak. "No, we're not, and we had to wait for Kagami's door to _feel_ safe."

Glaring exasperatedly at her younger sister as the two appeared in Miki's vision, Inori remained silent; every other time she told Matsuri off for not speaking respectfully to their mother, she was ignored, after all.

Not that Miki minded, though.

"That's part of why I called you two here," she said to her two still-standing daughters, "though it won't seem as such at first."

Turning away from her sister, Inori asked, "Is something wrong with their _development_?"

"No, I don't think so," replied Miki. "If anything, it seems beneficial."

"Well, what's up, then?" Matsuri asked grumpily and impatiently, ignoring another of Inori's glare in favor of yawning widely and only half-dramatically.

A short silence passed between the three, during which a casual observer might notice the air shimmering like it would near hot pavement. Of course, there were no casual observers; Miki was too good at what she did.

When she spoke, her words conveyed pure seriousness. "Their _energy charging_ rates are increasing. Yes, Matsuri, I know that their birthday is getting close, but this is a unique situation."

"How so, Okaa-san?" Inori asked, matching her mother's tone.

"As I thought, Kagami and Tsukasa are highly compatible, and their proximity to each other has created a positive feedback loop for their _stamina_ and _control_. However, there has been an unexpected…addition."

Matsuri took advantage of the pause in Miki's speech. "You're being rather dramatic this evening, Okaa-san. We've discussed this possibility before, so what's got you worried? It's just the two of them maturing."

"…I never said there were only two," muttered Miki rather darkly. "A third…entity is benefiting from and contributing to the loop."

It took a second for the two less _experienced_ women to fully understand what Miki was implying, but, when they did, it showed; Inori's total shock was mimicked in intensity only by Matsuri's rage-it took their mother every bit of willpower she had not to flinch at the force of the emotion in her daughter's face. Angrily hissing the words, the middle Hiiragi sister managed to say, "Some _bastard_ bound a _spirit_ to _our sister!?_"

"It would appear so," Miki replied semi-calmly, as hearing her suspicions spoken aloud by someone else made them seem more real. "That _feeling_ you got around Kagami's room? The spirit; they can't sleep, so it was probably keeping watch."

The curses coming from Matsuri's mouth were ignored with practiced ease. Inori, however, managed to keep her cool. "But why would it do that? And I've had that _feeling_ around her ever since I could-oh."

"Yes, it would appear that Kagami's tag-along has been with us for quite a while."

Matsuri's cursing grew in passion and intensity, the vocabulary unwittingly impressing her mother even while Inori disdainfully glanced toward the angriest and youngest of the group.

"We should have noticed!" she finally exclaimed at a level that would normally wake the whole household. "If I ever find the guy who did this, I'm gonna-" abruptly, she broke off, gazing into the distance, before gaining a rather deranged look on her face, "-to take one of Kagami's favorite threats, rip their intestines out through their nose and hang the one responsible by them. Poetic justice," she ended with more enthusiasm than natural when talking about severe bodily mutilation and murder.

"That's enough, Matsuri," Miki said with more sternness than usual. "It could have been some poor, ignorant, grieving spouse trying to save a loved one; Kagami could have been affected out of sheer coincidence."

That wasn't how it worked, though, and Inori knew it. "But, Okaa-san, that would mean…"

"She probably _can_ see the spirit, even if I'm wrong about the situation."

The Hiiragi mother's words were humbling, as they all knew exactly what truly seeing a spirit meant; even Matsuri's previously outraged expression softened into one of worry and pity. They stayed as such for a few long minutes.

"Inori," Miki finally said, "have you managed to work the mecha, yet?"

Sighing, but still taking advantage of the alternate topic, she replied, "No, I don't have enough natural _specialization_ to activate it, and nobody thought to install a second seat. I just hope one of the twins can pilot it."

* * *

**AN: Second filler done, and, next week, we return to our normal publishing schedule.**

**Thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, favorites, and follows thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 12, Konata -FS03-!**

_Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends-wait, what was happening? Oh, right-Konata makes plans: _

_'_With everything that's happened, I need some confirmation._'_

_And yes, that's all you get. What does this mean? Find out on Tuesday!_


	15. Konata -FS03-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 12

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"Honestly, I don't know what Okaa-san saw in him." _

_It was a simple statement, a continuation of her words from before, but it was said in such a sad voice that any restraint __Kanata__ had displayed before vanished. She stretched her arms around her daughter from behind and hugged, fully expecting to simply pass through the small form and suffer the devastation __Kanata__ knew that, despite logic, would come-_

_-and, then, her arms met resistance. _

Konata -FS03-

_'Be good for Mommy. I love you.'_

For whatever reason, this was the only coherent thought that passed through Konata's brain during that one blissful, confusing, and ultimately comforting moment, which was rather strange, considering that the only part of her mother's final speech the blue-haired teenager usually mentally replayed related to her game-like outlook on life. However, the embrace, so light that it might not have actually been there, invoked such a strong feeling of contentment that even the tiny, always present emotional blot of something dark that made itself known whenever she talked about Kanata, seeping seamlessly and often unnoticed into her speech, quieted.

Konata was nothing if not a gamer, however, and her honed mind zoned in on a very peculiar occurrence on her interface: a barely visible, flickering name on her Score box. Through the emotional turmoil, though she failed to make out what it said, it didn't take a genius to relate it to the mysterious and sourceless-there were no visible arms where Konata felt them-hug.

And, lastly-

_Brrring!_

The beautiful feeling went away, but the Text box's message remained by mental command even as the flickering addition to the Scores disappeared entirely.

"See you after school," Kagami said as she stood, leaving at a normal-seeming pace that, with the information Konata had, was rather suspicious to the blue-haired girl.

"Bye, Onee-chan!" Tsukasa replied, leading the others in their own goodbyes, though the twintailed girl had already stepped out of the classroom.

Class started, but, like always, Konata paid no attention, instead focusing on the Text box's last message: Kagami's face, despite otherwise being a perfect mask of neutrality, grows slightly less expressive, as if she's trying harder to keep her emotions in. 

_So she knows what happened, _thought Konata, not at all annoyed at the long-haired Hiiragi twin's unwillingness to provide the missing information; she was still rather high off the pure, unfiltered contentedness she obtained from her mysterious, invisible benefactor. _About time something plot-related turned up. Playing real-time makes me realize just how long some of those games would be from the characters' perspectives. _Thought she didn't realize it at first through her shroud of thoughts, her sigh attracted the attention of Kuroi-sensei, who happened to be walking by her desk. _This makes my plans more annoying to fulfill, doesn't_-

_Whack!_

"Ow!"

"Pay attention, Izumi!"

Her harder-than-normal attack seems to have brought her great relaxation.

_Something's on her mind? Oh, I am _so_ using this later. Mark my words, Sensei, I-no, the _moe_-army will have its revenge!_ From her position with her arms wrapped around her head, Konata caught Miyuki's eye and gave a very slight wink; when it was returned, the maligned blue-haired _otaku_ knew she had an ally. _I should probably be a bit worried about her enthusiasm, though. It seems a rather strange interest for her character type._

* * *

Kagami's neutral attitude appears forced. Is she angry about something? the Text box informed Konata when Kagami joined her, Tsukasa, and Miyuki at the school gates. _Well, it's not at _me_-I know that modifier's effects by heart. Let's see those subscores and…nope. This confirms that today's incident is related to It; if it weren't, there would be a separate modifier, no matter how small. Gotta love the interface!_

"Are you listening, Konata?"

_Urk! _"Of course, Kagami!"

"Then what were we talking about?" growled the annoyed _miko_.

"Ah…well…" _Access recording! Well, that didn't work…um…Aha!_ "You weren't talking about anything, because you just got here!"

With a look that plainly said, _'How the hell did she get that right?'_ Kagami turned back toward Tsukasa, muttering, "You obviously guessed," and proceeded to turn away from Konata.

_Rechecking…nope, no other modifiers. Maybe the Score box is broken? No, that's not possible, even if she's obviously taking her anger out on me for an unknown reason. Oh, look, more plot! We're on a roll today!_

Tsukasa looks at Kagami worriedly, but the latter shakes her head slightly, inducing a relieved expression in the short-haired twin. _That's easy to make conversation of. _"Wow, you two must be really close to be able to communicate silently like that."

Tsukasa nodded happily, apparently still cheerful from whatever reassurance her sister had given her. "Yep! Me and Onee-chan did everything together when we still shared a room."

_That is absolutely adorable, though now I want to see little Kagami…_ Konata glanced over at the twintailed girl, only to see that she was lost in thought, unfocused eyes pointing slightly downward.

Miyuki spoke next. "That sounds wonderful. I, myself, am an only child, though I like to think that my mother and I are rather close."

Nodding, as it seemed to fit the tallest of the four high school students, Konata decided to add, "And me with Otou-san."

This unintentionally caught the attention of Kagami, who broke her short space-out and ignore-Konata session to comment. "Isn't that the same father you said you have to lock in the basement just to bathe?"

"Yep!" replied the _otaku_ cheerfully. "He's actually pretty good at holding back, but I'm getting older, and he was the one to suggest it." Her face suddenly took on the menacing glare, directed at the ground, that the blue-haired girl wore when "convincing" her father to not act like a pervert in public. "I think he might enjoy it."

Disbelief and shock crawls across their faces, but the former falls from Kagami's after a second. _Hm…_

A few seconds of silence, appearing like it might continue for most of the walk, reigned in the group. However, as the lack of verbal communication neared the minute mark, something happened: Kagami stumbled backwards.

The act of anti-physics clumsiness-there was nothing in front of her to hit nor anybody behind to pull back-was so sudden that even Konata, who would readily admit to having the best reflexes in the group, couldn't turn in time to see what had happened. When she did, instinctually reaching out to grab Kagami's arm to support her, the blue-haired girl noticed her _other_ elbow sticking back, as if she had used it to hit somebody in retaliation.

Then again, there was nobody there. _By Haruhi, don't rehash the same hint! I need _more_, dammit, MORE!_

"Are you alright, Onee-chan?" Tsukasa asked her sister, concerned.

The slightly older twin stood straight, smoothing her skirt, which, intentionally or not, broke Konata's grip, and answered, "Yeah, I'm totally fine."

Her voice remains even, but her eyes are slightly narrower and the muscles in her jaw are tight. Furthermore, the uncharacteristic use of "totally" makes her statement seem sarcastic-at least, that's what Tsukasa seems to think, as it's impossible to tell from her voice.

Under normal circumstances-as in, Kagami considering her a decently close friend-Konata would comment on this in a humorous voice. _I should at least _try_ to hold myself back, though. Everyone's looking at Kagami, who's looking away from me herself, so nobody'll notice me not saying-_

"Isn't this the part where you say something, Konata?" Kagami asked, turning slightly to put her blue-haired addressee in her line of sight.

_Okay, I deserved that for provoking the universe. Better play ignorant, then._ "Whatever do you mean, Kagami?" _That would convince…nobody. Curse me and my teasing nature!_

There was no verbal response, only a glare that, if its owner had her way, would see Konata a corpse. As it was, though-

_Ker-znap!_

"Ow!" cried Konata, shocked-literally and figuratively-by the sudden, unseen attack. "What in the name of Haruhi was _that_?"

Tsukasa also yelled, but not from pain. "Ah, Kona-chan! Are you alright?"

"It did have a strange sound, Sergeant," Miyuki commented, nodding but still looking puzzled. "However, I failed to see what it was."

A surprised and confused look passes over Kagami's face. _Okay, I did ask for other hints at the plot, but this…tells me nothing. Joy. Oh, look, the train station! _

On that day, Konata learned how hard it was to wave enthusiastically while also rubbing a sore, unpleasantly tingling forearm.

* * *

"So, Konata, how was your day?" Soujirou asked his daughter while she cooked.

"It went pretty well, I guess. I successfully turned all of my friends against you before trying in vain to redeem you in their eyes."

"Ah, my own daughter!" the tall man dramatically whined, before glomping the smaller girl. "Why must you do this to me?"

_Why are you smiling while saying that? _With practiced ease that went against the large amount of complaining she did over her father's impeding of her cooking, she ignored the long arms that, under most circumstances, would cause failure of the culinary venture. "On the other hand, Kuroi-sensei and Kagami kept hitting me, and you-"

"Is she the _tsundere_ you told me about?"

"Ah, yeah, but, like I was saying-I _am_ holding a hot frying pan."

The dazed look in her father's eyes, acquired after her confirmation of Kagami's _tsundere_-ness, disappeared in confusion at Konata's words.

Until he saw the look on her face.

He was gone almost instantaneously.

* * *

**AN: Second-to-last -FS- story arc chapter: done! **

**I will take a few words here to mention that a concern about "last" chapter-the one before the fillers-will be addressed next chapter for various *cough*one*cough* reasons (which will also be mentioned then). **

**For now, though, I'll just say that this is a short main story chapter. Sorry! Honestly, though, it does what it's supposed to, so it's hard to complain. **

**Anyway, thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, follows, and favorites thus far! Here's a preview for next chapter, Chapter 13, Kagami -FS03-:**

_Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, __Kanata__, well…just look:_

_'Trembling, her furious gaze rose slowly to her hauntee's startled face.'_

_What happened? Come back on Friday to find out!_


	16. Kagami -FS03-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 13

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_There was no verbal response, only a glare that, if its owner had her way, would see Konata a corpse. As it was, though-_

Ker-znap!

_"Ow!" cried Konata, shocked-literally and figuratively-by the sudden, unseen attack. "What in the name of Haruhi was _that_?" _

_Tsukasa also yelled, but not from pain. "Ah, Kona-chan! Are you alright?"_

_"It did have a strange sound, Sergeant," Miyuki commented, nodding but still looking puzzled. "However, I failed to see what it was."_

_A surprised and confused look passes over Kagami's face. _Okay, I did ask for other hints at the plot, but this…tells me nothing. Joy. Oh, look, the train station!

Kagami -FS03-

A forced smile, a forced normal pace, and a forced gentleness in shutting her bedroom door preceded a long-awaited release of the rage that had boiled under her skin all day. Spinning around toward her incorporeal (_and idiotic_)companion, the irate Kagami hissed, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Kaga-" Kanata tried to begin, but was cut off immediately.

"All day you've been messing with me! All. Freaking. _Day!_ Pushing me and scaring me and pulling back on my bag and _hugging Konata!_"

"But she-"

"She _noticed!_" Kagami whispered, though her tone sounded harsher than normal yelling. "You weren't thinking; you were just being _selfish_."

"Kaga-chan, I wasn't-"

"What, thinking about others? It was Konata this time, but what about the next? What if you, I don't know, trip an open-minded physicist who whisks you away to a lab? It probably wouldn't take long to connect _you_ to _me_. Do you know what would happen to this family then-what would happen to _Tsukasa?_ Hell, what do you think would happen to _your daughter_ if she said a ghost grabbed her? She'd be thrown into an institution just because you couldn't-"

"How could I ignore her?" interrupted Kanata, trembling but keeping her gaze strictly downward. "You saw how sad she was!"

Taking a second to think back to when the _otaku_ had spoken of her mother, Kagami realized that she had no idea what the blue-haired ghost was talking about. "She might have been a little more serious than normal, but-"

"_That's how she deals with it!_"

Kanata's screamed words eerily echoed throughout the small room. Trembling even harder than before, her furious gaze rose slowly to her hauntee's startled face.

"You weren't there." The sudden calm in the spirit's words unsettled Kagami even more than her uncharacteristic outburst (_I wonder if she learned by watching Okaa-san?_), which was quite a feat considering this was the first time she had ever heard Kanata yell in anger. "You didn't see her right after my death. When you and Tsu-chan were napping and I had enough energy, I would visit them. That 'little more serious than normal' was how she _always_ acted then, even after Sou-kun got better, because she _never cried._

"Probably, she repressed her feelings to help Sou-kun." By now, all of the anger the tiny, ghostly woman held had bled away, revealing a lonely sadness that Kagami barely had to try to also attribute to the similar-looking daughter. "Then again, I never asked; I never could. Was I thinking about you or Tsu-chan? No, I was trying to comfort my daughter like any mother would, like I haven't been able to."

Kagami didn't (_couldn't_) say anything, just stared into the green eyes of her long-time friend who had, in the space of only a few minutes, moved between emotions the twintailed girl hadn't ever seen in the paler-than-natural mother. They stood still in awkward silence for several (_painfully long_) minutes.

Then, Kanata twitched, anxiousness overwriting her previous expression like a new set of important dates on a history class's chalkboard, and added, "…and this _tingling_ is making me more impatient than normal."

Kagami snorted; just like that, the silence's discomfort vanished to be replaced by one's stifled laughter and the other's unabashed giggling.

* * *

Sunday afternoon, just after Kagami had finished studying (_I'm never this slow with it. What's wrong with me?_), her cell phone rang, waking the sleeping Tsukasa and causing her to look drowsily and curiously at it. Peering apprehensively down at the devise revealed a suspicious "unknown" in the caller ID, which, for some reason, caused Kanata to begin one of her usual giggling fits.

"You should answer it, Kaga-chan," she managed to get out around the third ring.

Content to ignore the spirit's advice, the twintailed twin began to slide it back into her pocket when her sister spoke up. "You should answer it, Onee-chan." Kanata's smug facial expression prompted a near-silent growl from the slightly (_greatly!_) maligned Kagami, promising pain later.

This, of course, was ignored by the giggling ghost.

Sighing heavily and a bit overdramatically (_It was not!_), she finally, just as the ringing was about to end, answered. "Hello?"

"Wow, Kagami, I expected to have to call you like three times!"

"Konata?! How did you get this number?" Moving the phone a few centimeters away from her ear, she asked, rather sternly, "You didn't give it to her, right, Tsukasa?"

"Ah, no, I didn't give Kona-chan your number." She was (_suspiciously_) looking up at an angle, more than blatantly avoiding eye contact. "Just the home…"

"Don't blame Private Tsukasa, Kagami!"

"You're still doing that?" Kagami asked. "No, before that, stop yelling. Your voice doesn't need to actually travel from your house to mine."

She was, once again, ignored by an Izumi woman (_This is getting _really_ annoying._) "I took it after the fight with K-kun!"

"Wait, you were holding my phone for, what, two seconds? How did you-no, you know what? Don't answer that. You're probably going to say that you learned it from a game or anime or something."

"Ahaha…"

"Wait, you were? I was just joking!"

"There are some surprisingly educational games out there, Kagami!"

"Like your H-games?"

Konata didn't even pause at this. "Oh, that reminds me! I'm supposed to make you a strange nickname like the one you gave me!"

"Stop yelling already!" Kagami nearly screamed-that is, if she hadn't also been whispering out of habit-rubbing her (_extremely damaged_) ear. "And that wasn't a nickname."

"So I can't call you something like Captain Kagami?"

"No."

"How about…"

"_No._"

"Hm…maybe-"

"No!"

Soft grumbling could be heard through the phone, before the sound's maker responded teasingly with, "It's rather hypocritical of you to yell right after you told me not to."

"…Shut up," Kagami muttered. "Anyway, what do you want?"

"I'm just checking up on you, Kagami! Do you really believe I'm doing this because I want something?"

"Yes."

Another, "Hm…" could be heard through the connection, before an almost audible nod that the twintailed _miko _couldn't place the importance of. "Kagami the wonderful and smart person who pulls off twintails masterfully and knows me better than I know myself despite having only actually known me for about two weeks, could you help me with my homework?"

Kagami paused; the obvious sucking up to her aside, it (_probably_) wouldn't hurt to just _help_, would it? With this in mind, she asked, "What question do you need help on?"

"One."

"…You want me to give you the answers, don't you?"

"Yep!"

_Click!_

Kanata, who had lowered her head next to the phone, sighed, "Oh, Konata…" while Tsukasa, also closer than she had been, smiled sheepishly. She knew from experience that Kagami didn't just give out answers for free; she had to work for them. The short-haired twin had, to her sister's secret and embarrassed delight, said that Kagami would make a great teacher because of both her easy-to-understand explanations and serious-about-learning attitude.

"Ah!" Tsukasa gasped suddenly, looking at her homework in a panic before realizing that she had, in fact, completed it. Shoulders sagging in relief, she looked up and said, "Thanks for your help, Onee-chan!" One hug later and she was gone, stuff in tow, to play with her dolls.

"You really like helping her, don't you, Kaga-chan?"

Kagami smiled slightly and nodded, for there really wasn't anything else to say about it. Though she often tried to be hard on her younger twin to get her ready for a time when Kagami _couldn't_ help, she almost always doted on her anyway, unintentionally or not. Well, if Kanata (_or Konata_) made her angry or she was under a lot of stress, she sometimes snapped at Tsukasa on accident, but immediately followed by an apology.

After a second of staged contemplation, Kagami answered verbally, "Of course." Then, something occurred to the _miko_. "Wait, you knew she had my number and _never told me?!_"

* * *

**AN: And cut! The -Feeling Spiritual- story arc is now complete! This is…a really short chapter. I hope this doesn't happen in the future. **

**Now, on to answering Gigarot's review from a while ago-three weeks? Well, two main story chapters, at least. Simply, each chapter, though they are and likely will stay in third person, still represents each character's perspective. In this chapter, the reasons behind Kanata's opinion on what Konata was feeling are given, while Kagami admitted to not understanding where she was coming from and Konata described her feelings differently, though ambiguously, last chapter. Just because something is written in one chapter doesn't mean that's how everybody sees it, only that character. **

**Anyway, thank you for all the reviews, comments, favorites, and follows thus far! I won't give a preview, but next chapter is Chapter 14, Kagami -ID01-. **


	17. Kagami -ID01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 14

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_[J]ust after Kagami had finished studying (_I'm never this slow with it. What's wrong with me?_), her cell phone rang, waking the sleeping Tsukasa and causing her to look drowsily and curiously at it._

Kagami -ID01-

_Brrrrrrring! Brrrrrrring! Brrr-click!_

Groaning and rubbing her eyes, the pale figure of Kagami rose into a sitting position on her bed. She regretted this immediately, though, as the nausea that had been plaguing her for the past several days rushed forward; it took all of her willpower to hold herself back from throwing up whatever was left in her stomach from the previous night's dinner.

"Kaga-chan?" the familiar voice of Kanata said from somewhere to the lavender-haired girl's right.

"I-" she began, but was forced to pause for a few seconds when her self-control wavered. "I'm fine." Then, considering that her slumped posture and unusually exhausted tone, Kagami gathered her remaining strength-not much, despite having only just woken up-and forced herself to sit up straight. "No, really," came her newly confident voice, "I'm fine."

Still, the blue-haired woman wasn't buying her story, which was easily displayed in the seriousness replacing her usual teasing in her answer. "I didn't say anything, Kaga-chan."

Kagami moved slowly, still trying to hold her nausea back, toward her bed's edge, blinking to clear her blurry eyes and take in her surroundings. Nothing much had changed in the older Hiiragi twin's bedroom in the three weeks since her and Kanata's argument; for the most part, everything was organized and where it was supposed to be, save a few books the twintailed _miko_ couldn't remember leaving on the floor. Her constant companion, though, had an expression of extreme worry contorting her features. "I'm _fine_!" repeated the girl, a little (_very_) annoyed at Kanata's continual concern.

She didn't respond, only offered her arm to help her hauntee stand. When Kagami uncharacteristically accepted the offer, wobbling a little, and took a few shaky steps toward her closet, the ghost protested the girl's stubbornness. "You should probably stay home today."

Without stopping, as that might lead to taking Kanata up on the offer she had made every day that week (_Isn't Einstein's definition of insanity something like this?_), Kagami whispered, "It's the weekend tomorrow. I'll rest then." Somehow, her voice hadn't shown the poorness of her condition at all.

Not that this fooled Kanata, but she knew she couldn't stop the stubborn teen from doing what she wanted. Well, she could if she were willing to physically wrestle the ill girl and hold her in place for hours (_She's so small that I could overpower her, anyway._).

* * *

Above even the spirit's incessant worrying, Kagami found herself most aggravated by the glances the rest of her family gave her. Inori's was to be expected-she worried about her sisters most of the time, anyway-but the concerned expression made Matsuri look very strange to the long-haired twin (_I'd laugh normally, but this is getting out of hand._). It was only when Kagami noticed that her parents hadn't commented at all that she realized that everybody was trying to not annoy her even further.

On the other hand, Tsukasa commented on it immediately.

"Oh, good mor-are you alright, Onee-chan?"

The older of the two girls felt a muscle under her eye twitch, but didn't look down at her sister, as that would aggravate her nausea again. "I'm fine," she said curtly, before turning to leave. "You might want to hurry-we're running a little late today." The distraction worked perfectly, prompting the panicked sounds of Tsukasa's morning activities to begin.

Nobody else in the family bothered her about it that morning, though Tsukasa and Kanata had given her looks the entire way to the train station, which held another obstacle to overcome (_Please don't notice. Please don't notice. Please don't-_).

"Are you alright, Kagami?" Konata asked as a way of greeting.

"I'm _fine_, Konata."

Kanata, despite not being heard by anybody else (_She has to do it on purpose; nobody can be _that_ forgetful of their incorporeality after over a decade._), countered with, "No, she's not."

A glance at Tsukasa, who was looking pointedly in the general direction of rather suspicious-looking vending machine, revealed that she was unintentionally of the same opinion.

"You know, Kagami," the blue-haired teenager said in a matter-of-fact tone, "if you're not feeling well, you should stay at home."

A growl-an actual _growl_-escaped the long-haired _miko _at that. This, unfortunately, made her body try to cough, which Kagami covered by growling even louder.

Needless to say, it scared short _otaku_, absentminded baker, disembodied spirit, random passerby, and feral cat alike.

* * *

"Do you need to return to your home, Kagami-san?" Miyuki asked, ignoring the warning Konata and Tsukasa tried to give her, as soon as they met up near the school building.

Instead of answering, the, despite her beliefs, obviously unwell girl waved and led the group towards the building. She found it hard to be angry with the pink-haired genius, though she had no idea why, and would rather not push that unusual prohibition any further than necessary; this self-imposed reinforcement would, at the very least, give her someone else to talk to if the Izumi women and her family members took their justified concern (_Overprotectiveness_) too far.

"You should go home, Kagami," Konata said, jogging a bit to catch up to her longer-legged peer, overshooting the distance (_On purpose_), and turning around directly in front of her target. "Or, at least, the nurse's office."

"Move before I hit you again."

She did, though slowly, grumbly, and reluctantly, but not before saying, "You'll be there before the school day is over if I have to mobilize the rest of the _moe_-army to do it."

"Have fun with that."

* * *

"Oi, Hiiragi, are you sick?"

_Whack!_

"Gah!" Misao cried out in pain while Ayano watched with a mixture of amusement and concern-the latter of which, Kagami noted sourly, was intensified when looking at her. "That hurt, Hiiragi! More than usual, I mean."

"Obviously not enough if you're still being that loud."

"Whatever. Ever since you met the squirt, you've been more violent than usual." After saying this, though, Misao ran for her life, dragging Ayano with her, until they were safely hidden behind a particularly large classmate.

This time, at least, the fear was perfectly justified; a sharp pencil had been stabbed right through where the brown-haired girl's eye had been. Kagami wouldn't have actually gone through with the apparent assassination attempt had Misao not moved, but this would be a good way to keep her from questioning the twintailed _miko_ about it further.

"Kaga-chan…" Kanata quietly began, but trailed off.

* * *

Throughout the day, Kagami hadn't gotten better; if anything, she was worse. Movements quicker than a snail's pace battered her weakening defenses against outright puking on everything, though, admittedly, she hadn't anything in her stomach to puke in the first place, as her slowness that morning caused her to miss breakfast (_I'm on a diet, anyway, so it was probably for the best._). She was barely able to follow the teacher with her eyes without wanting to just fall over in a nauseated heap.

And her head was hurting.

It was already a third of the way through lunch when she finally arrived at her sister's, Konata's, and Miyuki's classroom, where, undoubtedly, Kanata had fled to during her class time. Sure enough, she found the four concerned faces of her current closest friends (_And acquaintances_) staring back at her as she slowly trudged to her customary seat across from Konata.

Silence echoed in the nearly empty classroom-staying there to eat had become even _less _popular than it had been in April-before Konata abruptly asked, "Kagami, where's your lunch?"

"I'm not hungry," replied the twintailed teen, which, actually, was true. However, this seemed to not be the answer the blue-haired _otaku_ had been looking for.

"No, I mean, you haven't eaten anything all week," she corrected, voice carrying a strangely eerie seriousness (_It really doesn't suit her; she seems like a person who'd play off her own seriousness as a game or something._). "Have you-no, wait. Private Tsukasa!"

Eep-ing, squeezing her eyes shut, and suddenly sitting straight, Kagami's short-haired twin answered, "Yes, Sergeant Kona-chan!"

"Has Captain Kagami been eating enough at home?"

A short burst of giggling at the strange nickname came from Kanata, prompting Kagami to growl out, "Don't give me such a strange title! And, Tsukasa, don't answer that!" However, just saying this much caused her overactive nausea to surge through her again, forcing her to close her eyes (_Which, in retrospect, probably helped Tsukasa decide…_).

"Um…I'm not sure, Sergeant Kona-chan. Now that I think about it…"

This was enough for the blue-haired girl, who promptly stood, marched over to Kagami, and demanded in a soft, surprisingly comforting tone, "Come on, Kagami, we have to get you to the nurse's office." Louder, she addressed her two "subordinates" (_They really take that too seriously._). "Private Miyuki-san, you tell Kuroi-sensei where we are if she asks. Private Tsukasa-"

"I'll help you with Onee-chan," she interrupted with an expression of adorable determination that, under normal circumstances, would likely cause Konata to go into some sort of rant.

This time, though, she simply nodded and pulled up on Kagami's right arm. The sudden ascent caused the twintailed _miko_ no small amount of dizziness, removing any real ability to resist her abductor and sister as they half-carried her down the hallways of the school.

* * *

**AN: That's Kagami -ID01-, first chapter in the -ID- story arc, complete. **

**I…have nothing to say about this except that this was loosely planned sometime in early April as, like, the fourth scene of this ever conceptualized before writing. Other than that, though, this is probably the most serious this story has been so far. I wonder, both seriously and sarcastically, how long that will last. **

**Anyway, thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, favorites, and follows thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 15, Konata -ID01-:**

_Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Konata is seriously silly…or sillily serious? I'm not sure which._

_'"Alright, Nurse-san, I need one of those outfits."'_

_Does silly even have a form like serious' "seriously"? Find out (probably not) Friday!_


	18. Konata -ID01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 15

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_This was enough for the blue-haired girl, who promptly stood, marched over to Kagami, and demanded in a soft, surprisingly comforting tone, "Come on, Kagami, we have to get you to the nurse's office." Louder, she addressed her two "subordinates." "Private Miyuki-san, you tell Kuroi-sensei where we are if she asks. Private Tsukasa-"_

_"I'll help you with Onee-chan," she interrupted with an expression of adorable determination that, under normal circumstances, would likely cause Konata to go into some sort of rant. _

_This time, though, she simply nodded and pulled up on Kagami's right arm. The sudden ascent caused the twintailed miko no small amount of dizziness, removing any real ability to resist her abductor and sister as they half-carried her down the hallways of the school. _

Konata -ID01-

By the time they reached the floor the nurse's office was on, though, the Kagami began to struggle. _She probably would've started before,_ mused Konata, whose unusual strength combined with her cargo's current illness allowed a continuous grip, _except we were on a staircase. Anyway, the three of us are going so slowly that the bell's already rung; I hope Kuroi-sensei believes that we're not just skipping class. _

"I'm…fine!" the obviously _not_ fine girl grunted from between Konata and Tsukasa, both of whom shot her looks of worry and a sprinkle of disbelief.

Konata said what her partner in medically required abduction wouldn't. "Kagami, have you looked in a mirror lately? Your face looks like a skull's, your ribs are visible through your uniform, which, admittedly, is partially due to the sweat from the high fever you're running, and you're being restrained by _Tsukasa_." _Gotta love the Text box!_

Not offended at all from insinuations in Konata's unusually serious rebuttal, the short-haired Hiiragi twin nodded fiercely in agreement just as they arrived at their destination.

_Probably for the best, too,_ thought Konata idly as she and her subordinate tried to force a suddenly strong Kagami through the doorway. _Who knows what she would've-_

A blue arc passes from Kagami to you.

_Ker-znap!_

"Ow!" _By Haruhi's ribbon, this is, like, the twelfth time this week that this has happened! _Jerking back from the sudden shock, the tiny teenager narrowed her eyes before lunging back into the fray, finally forcing the twintailed rebel into her new prison. At the lavender-haired mass stumbled forth and collapsed on one of the beds, Konata growled, "You will get better _and_ _you will like it_!" _Where does she even get that static, anyway? Generators in her socks?_

Ignorant of Konata's thoughts, Kagami simply rolled over, moaning and holding her head. _She didn't hit it-the Text box would've told me-so she has a headache, too…_

"Is everything alright?" the school nurse asked as she emerged from wherever she had been hiding. Then, her eyes landed on the groaning, long-haired Hiiragi. "Oh, my! Thank you two for bringing her here. I'll take care of everything from here, so head back to-"

_Oh, no. I'm not giving up this chance. I probably know what's wrong more than she does, anyway. _"Alright, Nurse-san, I need one of those outfits."

"What?" came three voices, Tsukasa's of shock, the nurse's of indignation, and Kagami's a moan that sounded-

Kagami seems more worried over your plan to help than her current state. _Yeah, that._ Whirling around toward the twintailed _miko_, Konata said, voice full of solemn determination, "I might not look it, but I know more about your current situation-and how to treat it-than anybody else here. I'm not only an _otaku_; I know quite a bit of basic medicine, too. Now," she continued, turning back toward the nurse and holding out her hand, "outfit."

A blatantly fake smile appeared on the nurse's features as she replied, in a tone as subtly condescending as she could produce, "It would be better to leave this to the professionals, dearie." This, of course, meant something on the lines of, _"Like hell you know more than I do! Get out!"_

"Is that so? Then could you tell me what's up with Kagami in ten seconds?"

The school nurse met the challenging stare of the much shorter and younger girl, before turning confidently toward her new patient. _She probably didn't even know her name before I told her. Anyway, this "professional" should lose right about-_ The nurse's confidence leaks out as she realizes that she actually has know idea what Kagami's problem is. _-now. _

"I-I need to take some measurements," the older woman muttered, but, when she turned to follow through, Konata stood in her way.

"If you asked Private Tsukasa or me, we would've told you she hasn't eaten much recently-like, in the past, what, month? Yeah," the blue-haired _otaku_ began. "Furthermore, she doesn't show any distinct symptoms of malnutrition, only a weakened immune system-I must complement you on that, Kagami; it must've been quite difficult to manage that-which allowed some disease to attack, causing her illness.

"_Now_," she continued, glaring at the disbelieving, time-wasting woman, "outfit. Or else."

* * *

When Konata emerged from the office's adjoining storage room, leaving the nurse sobbing in the fetal position under the desk, she found Tsukasa holding the hand of her sister, who, at some point, had been rearranged so as to lie on the bed normally, not in the perpendicular sprawl she had been in before. _She's all neat now, though, so I can't-no, bad Konata! Now's not the time to think about that! Kagami needs _me_, not some depraved old man in a teenaged girl's body!_

"Kona-chan," Tsukasa whimpered worriedly, "is there anything I can do to help Onee-chan?"

"Make sure she stays at home next time," answered a distracted _otaku_, who had grabbed a clipboard from nearby and had started scribbling rapidly. _Let's see…no cough, apparent dizziness, nausea…unknown, yes to fever and headache…_ "Oh, and make sure she eats enough. Somehow, Kagami managed to get the right amount of nutrients but not enough energy to keep her immune system going at her normal level, so have her eat, I don't know, a box of Pocky every few days after she gets better." Kagami twitches when she hears "Pocky," though the reason why is not quite clear.

It didn't stay so for long. "Oh, that should be fine. Onee-chan loves Pocky!"

_Better make a mental note of that!_ "Great! Now, we need to address this illness. Kagami, are you nauseous?"

Her gurgling gag and killer glare at some moving spot a few centimeters above your head imply that the answer is yes.

"Alright, then." _Sounds sorta like a severe cold or the flu, though it's not really the right weather for it…_ "Best we can do is alleviate the symptoms a bit while your body fights it off. You need to get home and in bed as soon as possible. I'll fake prescriptions for you and pick them up on my way to your house."

"Wait," a scratchy voice came from the twintailed, bedridden form.

A rather conspicuous pause followed, prompting the Text box to say, The silence after Kagami's one word is long enough that, when Kagami whisper's something almost unnoticeably, it seems almost like a response. _Is that so? An interesting new detail to add to the nearly constant notices of her saying something under her breath. What are you up to, Kagami? Are you reporting to a secret organization about my nursing capabilities? No, that makes no sense. _

Before more speculation light up Konata's mind, the long-haired Hiiragi continued with clenched teeth. "…Aren't you supposed to take certain measurements before prescribing?"

_No comment on my blatantly illegal actions?_ "Oh, don't worry about that. I had Tsukasa give them to me yesterday when she gave me your address. That's enough questions for now," Konata quickly interrupted the opening of her sick charge's mouth. "You need to get better. Private Tsukasa, call whichever parent of yours you think can get Kagami home faster."

"But…but I don't have a phone, Sergeant Kona-chan!" wailed the distressed younger twin.

"Just use Kagami's. I need to use the office's for the prescriptions. Oh, and don't worry, Tsukasa, your sister's made of strong stuff. She'll pull through with nary a struggle!"

A moan caught the two's attention. "…If you put the same effort you give things like games and…that…into schoolwork," she managed to mutter, gesturing in Konata's general direction, "then you'd be as good as Miyuki-san."

* * *

"May I ask," hissed a very angry Kuroi Nanako when Konata slammed open the classroom door, "what excuse you have for coming to class _thirty minutes late_?!"

"I was helping Kagami get to the nurse's office," the target of the teacher's ire responded calmly, though without her usual cheerfulness. "She put up a surprisingly good struggle for somebody with a weakened body."

"Which is why you're cosplaying as a nurse, I assume?"

"Yep. I had to blackmail the school nurse to get it, though. She might be handing in her resignation in a few days, now that I think about it."

"…You know what? That's probably the most believable excuse you've ever given me."

As Konata took her seat, she nodded. "You can even ask Tsukasa's and Kagami's mother; I was there when she came to pick them up."

Inexplicitly (to anybody not named Konata), this seemed to satisfy the blonde-haired teacher, who nodded and continued doing her job as if there hadn't been an interruption.

* * *

Later, still dressed like a nurse, the blue-haired teen emerged from the pharmacy, wiping "sweat" away from her "fevered" head and forcing a few coughs. She had faked illness in order to pass the scrutinizing stare given by the lab coat-clad man at the counter; now, she was wiping the makeup she had donned in order to complete the image.

_This is going to take forever to get off, isn't it? Well, whatever. It did its job, and now it's time for me to do mine. _And so, Konata headed towards her patient's house, bag of medicine swinging in a joyful way completely unlike the girl's state of mind.

* * *

**AN: There's Konata -ID01-! **

**Thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, follows, and favorites thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 16, ****Kanata**** -ID01-:**

_Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, __Kanata__ sits back to enjoy the show. _

_'Kanata's lips twitched upward as she did her absolute best to hold in her giggles so as to not distract Kagami from her tender's voice, while simultaneously wishing for a bag of popcorn.'_


	19. Kanata -ID01-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 16

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_Later, still dressed like a nurse, the blue-haired teen emerged from the pharmacy, wiping "sweat" away from her "fevered" head and forcing a few coughs. She had faked illness in order to pass the scrutinizing stare given by the lab coat-clad man at the counter; now, she was wiping the makeup she had donned in order to complete the image. _

This is going to take forever to get off, isn't it? Well, whatever. It did its job, and now it's time for me to do mine._ And so, Konata headed towards her patient's house, bag of medicine swinging in a joyful way completely unlike the girl's state of mind. _

Kanata -ID01-

While Konata got the medicine and Tsukasa helped her sister toward her bed, the resident spirit was not idle, though, honestly, there wasn't much she could do. Nobody besides the feverish Kagami could consistently interact with her, after all, and only objects recently handled by the twintailed girl were so much as touchable to Kanata.

This, incidentally, was what she tried to take advantage of.

"Oh, come on! Work with me for once, physics!"

Key word: tried.

A groan came from the bed behind the blue-haired ghost, likely, Kanata realized, due to her overly loud complaints. "Ah, sorry, Kaga-chan!" she apologized, before returning to her task, whispering menacingly at the light novel before her. "She was holding you _last night_, you rebellious piece of shredded tree, so cooperate!"

Her fingers seemed to almost brush the back of the book before passing right through it.

The following silence, filled only with the short-haired twin's fretting and tiny spirit's trembling, lasted only a few seconds, ending with a nearly audible _snap_.

Though that might have been the sound of the book hitting the wall.

All three of the room's current occupants stared at the light novel now sitting on the ground next to Kagami's desk with varying expressions on their faces, the ghost's of shock, the tender's of blank confusion, and the bedridden's of dull annoyance.

"Ah…did it fall?" asked Tsukasa, though whether it was rhetorical Kanata did not know-not that she or Kagami were in any shape to answer, anyway-especially as the desk had been completely novel-free.

As Kanata moved to pick the book up and finish the mission she started, though, a subtle glare from the ill girl stopped her. _"Don't you dare while Tsukasa is still in here!"_ it seemed to say.

"But Kaga-chan, you need something to do while we're waiting for Konata," whined the ghost in response.

The glare intensified, but still managed to remain unnoticed by a still-bewildered Tsukasa. _"Wait until she leaves or I'll eviscerate your spiritual-"_

"Tsukasa!" interrupted Miki's voice from elsewhere in the house. "Could you get the door? Oh, and thanks for calling a nurse that does home visits!"

Startled out of her reverie, the short-haired twin jumped up only to be re-confused by her mother's last statement. "Huh? I didn't…" The rest of her perplexed speech trailed off as she wondered off, hopefully toward the waiting "nurse" outside the door.

Of course, Kanata figured out exactly who had arrived, and was giggling quite heavily. "Oh, Konata, what are we-oh, come on!" exclaimed the annoyed spirit, as, once again, she had failed to lift the small book. "Not this again. I will triumph over you, overrated bunch of bound paper!"

"Headache," groaned Kagami scratchily and miserably.

Wincing, Kanata replied, "Sorry, Kaga-chan; I forgot again," before returning to her task. She had to be quiet and gentle; she had to focus on getting the novel from _here_ to _there_, despite it not wanting to move a millimeter. Thus, once again, she reached down, slowly wrapped her fingers around the infuriating object, and pulled back.

To say that she was holding the small book would be less than accurate, but not quite wrong, either. Rather, it was more like it was floating about half a centimeter away from the fingers that should have been touching it, as if Kanata were wearing thick, invisible gloves that made her hands feel more solid than they had since she died. Only the sound of approaching footsteps broke her of the stunned awe that stole away the spirit's ability to move.

"Here you go, Kaga-chan!" Kanata said both happily and hastily, a feeling of extreme accomplishment surging through her, just before the door opened.

"How are you feeling, Kagami?" asked Konata, worry evident both on her face and in her voice, before she had taken her third step into the room. Her concern only increased when the only answer she received was a groan. "Point taken. Now, here," the still-nurse-outfitted girl continued, holding up the plastic bag she'd carried in, "are the medicines and 'supplements' you'll need to get _and stay_ better. First, though, I need to check a few things."

What followed was, perhaps, the unveiling of the most amazing feat of packing Kanata had ever seen. From various places on her body, Konata pulled a bunch of professional-looking medical equipment, most of which the unnoticed ghost recognized from her time in the hospital. Kagami's desk, once home to a stack of textbooks and other school supplies, now found itself the temporary residence of a stethoscope, a box of latex gloves, a cloth sleeve containing countless needles of various sizes, several empty IV bags with their corresponding tubes, a dozen surgical masks, a weird metal rod that looked expandable, and, of all things, a student's dissection kit.

The sight of this last one forced Kagami to speak up in a scratchy voice. "You're not doing surgery on me," she managed to say, invoking an "eep" from Tsukasa in response.

"Don't worry your little twintails, Kagami," Konata replied, pulling a stand that seemed like it might go with the strangely familiar rod from before from the plastic medicine bag. "I'll only go that far if something serious happens, like your ribs spontaneously combusting. Even if it does, I have the high scores in every medical simulation game in the city. I know what I'm doing." At this point, poor Tsukasa looked like she might pass out from fear, something that, despite not turning from assembling something with the rod and stand-an IV stand?-Konata noticed. "It'll be alright, Tsukasa. It won't come to that."

Another hyper-perceptive moment from Kanata's daughter was, thus, added to the spirit's mental list of the many instances of Konata catching the tiny hints of Kagami's misdirection and conversations with her haunter. Idly, she wondered whether this strangeness was at all related to her, "Life is like a video game," comment, before dismissing it as extremely unlikely.

Snapping back to the room's happenings, Kanata watched in confusion as Konata wrapped a bandage around the tube of an empty IV bag hanging on the assembled stand. The tube wasn't in any way doing what it was meant to, as, even ignoring that there was nothing for it to feed into Kagami's veins, its open end stuck up away from the arm it had been attached to. Then, seemingly to make the setup even more dubious, the "nurse" pulled rope from _somewhere_ and tied the stand to the desk. Then, after stepping back and looking at her work thoughtfully, she pulled a length of chain from, apparently, her shoe in order to bind the desk to the bookshelf.

"Why did she-" Kanata began, but then she understood. "She's making sure you don't get away. Though, this is a bit excessive, right?"

As if answering, though the spirit obviously wasn't heard, Konata said, "You really should blame yourself, Kagami; if you hadn't struggled so much earlier, this wouldn't be necessary. However, there's enough leeway for you to walk around a bit, maybe get another light novel, once you get a little better."

The glare coming from Kagami was as intense as a dizzy, swaying face can make it. Tsukasa, on the other hand, stared at the book that hadn't really moved since Kanata had set it down in confusion.

Then, the short "nurse" girl began to explain, in excruciating detail, exactly what each of the four bottles of medicine was for, how much to take, and what side effects might be expected, while simultaneously gathering the unused and seemingly pointless collection of items from Kagami's desk. Kanata's lips twitched upward as she did her absolute best to hold in her giggles so as to not distract Kagami, who already looked quite lost, from her tender's voice, while simultaneously wishing for a bag of popcorn.

"Now, I'm going to tell Tsukasa and your mother what medicines you need to take and when. I'll be back tomorrow for your first checkup." Konata moved toward the door, motioning for Tsukasa to follow, but stopped short of leaving. Over her shoulder, she called back, "Get better soon, Kagami!" Then, she was gone.

The remaining pair stared at the doorway for several seconds, listening to the receding footsteps, before the harsh-sounding voice of Kagami spoke up. "What. The. Hell!" she whisper-exclaimed, tugging at the bandages that bound her to the IV stand. "This is too much! She forced me from school in the middle of the day, traumatized the school nurse, stole an outfit, and, now, has me tied up. Why isn't this coming loose?!"

"She's just worried about you, Kaga-chan," Kanata defended, "and you _needed_ to come home earlier. Even if you weren't worried about yourself, what about others who might contract whatever disease you have?"

"Konata said I have it because my immune system was weakened, so that wasn't a problem."

"But you didn't know that before. You aren't the kind of person who would risk others getting sick just because of your own stubbornness."

"…It didn't seem serious enough for me to stay home."

The sound of the front door closing made its way to Kagami's bedroom; Konata had left. "There, that wasn't hard to admit, right, Kaga-chan?"

"Take that smugness of yours somewhere else," Kagami replied with far less heat than normal. "Go celebrate nearly managing to put a hole in the wall or something."

After her daughter's arrival and unusually serious turn on her antics, Kanata had, honestly, forgotten that she had finally managed to pick up the book. Now, though, she didn't particularly feel like celebrating. "How about I read to you after Tsu-chan and Miki-san make sure you take your medicine, instead?"

* * *

**AN: There's the end of ****Kanata**** -ID01-. **

**I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already, but I have a very specific way of generating ideas for oGaIF-not that it ever works the way I expect it to. Whenever I need to come up with something new, I listen to _100% Nai nai nai _**_(Disclaimer: which I don't own in any way, shape, or form) _**and let my brain go. Pretty much everything in the next several story arcs stemmed from this method, but the parts I wanted more ideas about didn't get anything new. Luckily, though, I now know what's going to happen between now and then. **

**Anyway, thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, follows, and favorites thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 17, Kagami -ID02-:**

_Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, Kagami prepares for the inevitable._

_'"She'll be here in an hour and, if I'm not prepared, she'll probably drive me crazy."'_


	20. Kagami -ID02-

Disclaimer: I do not own _Lucky Star_ or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

_Of Galge and Imaginary Friends_

Chapter 17

_Last time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends…_

_"Take that smugness of yours somewhere else," Kagami replied with far less heat than normal. "Go celebrate nearly managing to put a hole in the wall or something." _

_After her daughter's arrival and unusually serious turn on her antics, Kanata had, honestly, forgotten that she had finally managed to pick up the book. Now, though, she didn't particularly feel like celebrating. "How about I read to you after Tsu-chan and Miki-san make sure you take your medicine, instead?"_

Kagami -ID02-

_Poke, poke, poke…_

After several minutes, the uncomfortable sensation of someone lightly jabbing her side finally dragged Kagami's consciousness, kicking and screaming, out of a strange, restless-yet-blissful sleep (_How can I want to fall back asleep _and_ actually do something at the same time?_).

_…poke, poke, poke-poke…_

A second finger, considerably larger than the first, joined in, finally forcing its target into full, angry wakefulness.

…_poke-poke, poke-poke, poke-Whack!_

"Ow!" Matsuri cried out as her forehead became the landing spot for a flying, bony wrist (_I really haven't been eating much, have I?_). "What was that for?!"

"I wonder," sarcastically replied the lavender-haired girl, who was reaching for her ribbons almost subconsciously. "Go bother someone else."

"_That's_ a great way to thank me for waking you up," muttered Matsuri as she stalked away, nursing her growing cranial red spot (_As if I would!_). Her grumbles faded into incomprehensibility as soon as she left the room (_Wait a second…_).

Realization dawned upon Kagami, who asked, hoping she was wrong, "What time is it?"

"Ah…just after nine thir-" Kanata, being the only one in the room, tried to answer, but was cut off.

"_What?!_" screeched the bedridden teenager, partially recovered voice returning to its hoarseness from the previous day in protest of the sudden use of its full volume. "This is-I need to get ready."

When Kagami tried to stand in order to do just that, she was forced back down by an unusually stern Kanata. "Oh, no, you don't," she chastised in a voice mimicking her expression. "Medicine first, then tell me how you're feeling." There was no way out (_She just doesn't understand!_), so, four pills later, the ghost was tapping her foot impatiently. "Well?"

Kagami sighed in exasperation. "She'll be here in an hour. If I'm not prepared, she'll probably drive me crazy."

"You'll have plenty of time after this, Kaga-chan," answered the spirit, unamused.

"Fine," huffed the annoyed high schooler, before recounting the differences between yesterday's sick and today's. Honestly, she felt better overall; her body aches had vanished, voice hoarseness only around due to her yelling, and dizziness practically nonexistent. On the other hand, though she could speak easier, she still had a sore throat and, while she didn't feel as if she had a headache, there was a strange numbness where it was supposed to be (_That just doesn't seem natural…_).

However, by the time Kanata had coaxed this out of the reluctant lavender-haired girl, ten o'clock had come and gone, leaving even less time than before to "prepare."

"I told you!" she whisper-yelled at her always-present companion. "I don't have nearly enough time to brace myself. Who knows what she'll do to me today."

"It's not that bad," Kanata defended her daughter's (_Unforgivable!_) actions.

"She tied me to an IV stand, which she _then_ tied to my desk and bookshelf!"

"Well, she did have good points. Even you will admit, Kaga-chan, that you wouldn't have stayed put through the entire night had she not." (_I will not! I mean, I wouldn't-would-ah, whatever._)

Any comeback Kagami could've made was cut off by her stomach, devoid of anything to digest. With amazing timing, a knock from the bedroom door heralded the exact voice the ill girl wanted to hear. "Onee-chan, I have breakfast!"

Kanata, obviously knowing that her hauntee couldn't make a comeback, said in her best teasing voice, "Tsu-chan understands you so well!"

Kagami's eye twitched, but she regained control before she called her sister in. "Thanks, Tsukasa."

* * *

Amazingly, the long-haired girl's stomach had settled enough overnight for her to finish Tsukasa's amazing cooking before her "nurse" arrived. However, as soon as the shorter-haired twin left, dishes clean held under her a proud, relieved smile, the realization that Konata would be arriving in five minutes caused a…mild panic.

"Let me go, dammit! I need to escape!"

"No, Kaga-chan!" pleaded the tiny ghost, struggling against the recovering strength of the bedridden teenager. "Konata knows what she's doing!"

"She got her knowledge from _video games_!" replied Kagami in a tone somewhere between a yell and a whisper, though she seemed on the verge of completely abandoning the latter. "Why in hell would I trust that?!"

"That's not all! She practically lived in the hospital-"

"When she was two!" There was a pause, in which Kagami stopped fighting and Kanata didn't let down her guard at all (_I was hoping…_), before the un-twintailed girl amended, "If you're to be believed, that is."

"You're still-" the ghost grunted as the fighting restarted, "-being stubborn about that?"

"That's not the point! The point is that I _need to escape_!"

"No, you-"

A distant knocking caused the two to, once again, stop, staring in the general direction of the front door. "She's three minutes early," came Kagami's voice, the audible picture of forced calm. Then, she simply collapsed backwards onto her pillow, resigned, and stayed there in silence as she waited (_For my doom_).

And she waited.

And she waited.

And she waited.

However, she didn't hear any footsteps. "Maybe…it wasn't her?" Kanata asked under her breath (_How can she breathe, anyway?_).

"In that case, I'll just-"

_Bang!_

Without warning, the bedroom door slammed open, revealing, in a different (_Skimpier_) nurse's outfit, the tiny form of Konata, leg lowering just fast enough to not actually show anything it wasn't supposed to (_Which isn't saying as much as it should_) and face in an its usual cat grin.

Kagami managed to say something first. "You know that modifying school property is illegal, right?"

"Don't worry, Kagami," the blue-haired teenager replied easily with little trace of yesterday's seriousness. "I returned that. This one's mine."

"That explains-wait, you didn't come the _entire way_ dressed like that, right?"

"Of course I did!" replied Konata, who was, once again, unloading various professional-looking things onto the desk. "I won't insult my position by taking off my uniform for silly things like modesty!"

Off to the side, Kanata was sweatdropping. "Oh, Konata," she muttered with a sigh.

"More importantly," both Kagami and Konata started at the same time, startling them and Tsukasa, who, with the same timing as she had with her sister's food, entered just as this happened and adopted a confused expression.

Kagami forced her way past her shock first. "My _parents_ didn't see you in that, did they?" she nearly whispered in dread (_If they did, I don't know what I'll-_).

"Not taking it off means not taking it off, Kagami."

The usually-twintailed girl wished desperately for something hard, like a desk or the wall, to be closer; she desperately wanted to hit her head against something like that. Instead, she settled for the simple facepalm.

"Oh!" Konata exclaimed excitedly in response, pointing at the bedridden girl (_I _really_ want to walk around…_). "That was the most beautiful facepalm I've ever seen in real life!"

At this point, Kagami just decided to take it as a complement just to make the visit go by quicker. "What were you saying before?"

Nodding, the short "nurse" regained the seriousness she had seemingly abandoned before. "Well, you seem to be doing much better today, Kagami," she said, pulling a clipboard from behind her ear (_How did she-no, I don't want to know._). "This says most of your symptoms are mostly gone, except for your sore throat and a 'numbness where your headache is supposed to be.'"

There was only one person she had told that to, and the ghost looked extraordinarily smug about it. Kagami tried to subtly glare at the spirit while conveying the message of, _"What the hell were you thinking?!"_

All she got in response was a tongue sticking out.

Konata continued her checkup, pulling her patient into a sitting position to better apply her stethoscope. "Luckily for you, all reports say that you were on good behavior," she said after writing something down. "This means…" Taking a pair of scissors, she quickly (_Too quickly_) cut the bandages binding her arm to the IV stand.

Kagami was free.

"You should stay on medicine schedule for the rest of the day. I'll be back later."

* * *

**AN: Kagami -ID02- is now complete! This is a bit (like, five hours) early because something was sprung upon me, so I have somewhere to be when I would normally publish this (and I spent all of yesterday doing various other things, too…), which is also why this is a bit shorter than usual.  
**

**Anyway, thank you very much for all of the reviews, comments, follows, and favorites thus far! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 18, Kanata -ID02-:**

_Next time in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, various visitors, well, visit._

_'"I can't believe I'm saying this," Kagami whispered, "but I'm actually _hoping _that this one is Konata."' _


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